The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1861-02-07
Emerson OH Domestic Life.
Subjoined are a few extracts from Ralph Wal
10 EmersOn's Essay on Domestic Life


do EmersOn's Essay on Domestic Life
HOW To Buy.
We ask the price Of many things in shops and
stalls, but some things each man buys without
hesitation, If il were only letter. at the pot Office,
conveyance IN carriages and boats, tools for his
work, books that are written u his condition, etc.
Let him never buy anything else than what lie
wants never subscribe 1T others instance never
give unwillingly. Thus a scholar il = literary
foundation. All his expense Is for Aristotle, Ia
bricius, Fl lsmus,a and Pctrarch. Do not ask him
To help with his savings young draper OF grocers
To stock their shops, or eager agents To lobby leg
! i-laturez. or IOin a COMPANY u build q factory or
/ a fshingcraft. These things are also 70 be done.
but not by such a. he. How could such a book
as PlatO'z Dialogues have come down but for the
sacred sayings of scholars and their fantastic aF-
preparation of them.
In like manner another man i a mechanical
genius, an inventor Of looms, a builder Of ships
u shipbuildingf foundation. and could achieve moth
ing, if he should dissi pate himself Oh books OF on
horses. Another Is u Ermer-an agricultural
foundation another j. 4 chemist-and the same
rule holds for all. We must not make believe
with our money, but spend heartily, and buy up
and not down.
Orr HOUSEKEEPING AND BEAUTIFUL.
am afraid that our domestic life Will not bear
looking into. | fear that our houses will not
be- found TO have unity, and 10 express the best
thought. The household. the calling, the friend
ships Of the citizen, are not homogeneous. Ills
house ought to show us his honest opinion Of
what his well-being consists in when he rests
among his kindred, and forgets all affectation,
all compliance, and even all cxertiOn Of viii. He
brings home thither whatever commodities and
ornaments have for years allured his pursuit, and
his character must be seen III them. But what
idea predominates in our houses? Thrift first,
then convenience and pleasure. Take off all the
roofs from street To street, and we shall seldom
find the temple of any higher god than Prudence.
The progress OF any domestic living has been IN
cleanliness, III ventilation, in health, i'll decorum,
in countless means and arts of comfort, In the
concentration of all the utilities Of every cline in
each house. They are arranged for low benefits;
houses of the rich are cOntectiOners' shops, where
we get sweetmeats and wine the houses of the
poor are limitations of these to the extent Of their
ability. With these ends housekeeping is not
beautiful it cheers and raises neither the hus-
band, the wife nor the child neither the host
nor the guest it Expresses woman. y house
kept 10 the end of prudence is laborlous without
JOY Il house kept to the ell o. display is inpos-
sible to all but Il few women, aid their success is
dearly bought.
1t is sufficient accusation of our ways of living,
and certainly ought to open our ear to every good
minded rcfOrmer, that our ideas of domestic we'll
being now needs wealth to execute IT.. Give me
the means, says the wife, and your house shall
not annoy your taste nor waste time. On hear
ing this, We understand how these means have
NDbII ~ ~ ~ pDAAAfI CNIA-N 'A 49, ~A'A Ah'@-~A
the love of wealth seems IL grow chiefly out of the
root of the love of the beautiful. The desire of
gold is not for gold. 1t is not the love of much
wheat and wool and household stuff. 1t is the
means Of freedom and benefit. We scorn shifts.
We desire the elegancy Of munifcence. We de-
at least 10 put no stint or limit ON our pa
rents, relatives, guests or DEFENDANTS. We de-
To play the benefactOr and the prince with
our tOwnsmen, with the stranger at the gate,
with the bard, or the beauty, with the man or
r,,,ny ~ -,r+Iv. Il. ,1t1 - ~ .rrr I..r How
can we do this, if the wants Of each day imprIs-
on us in lucrative llbOrs, and constrlin us to Il
vigilance lest we be betrayed into ex-
THE HONOR OF BEING 4 MASTER or LIVING WELL.
/ honor that man whose ambition il is. not to
laurels in the state or the army. not to be 4
urist or Il naturalist, not to be Il poet or Il COM
nander, but To be Il master of living well, and TO
the Offices of master or servant, of hus-
band, father and friend. But it requires Us much
of power for this as for those other func-
much, or mOre-and the reason for the I
is the same. ] think the vice of our
housekeeping Is, that 1t does not hold man sacred.
The vice of government, the vice of education,
he vice of religion, l. one with that of private
ife. There Is yet no house, because there is yet
10 hOusekeeper. As the tenant, such will be the
.bode.
The CURSE OF HURRY.
/ think this sad result appears in the manners
{ men. The men we see in each other do not
i've us the image and likeness of man. The men
Se see are whipped through the world they are
hurried wrinkled and anxious they seem all the
Iacks of some invisible riders. How seldom do
ye behold tranquility We have never vet seen
man. We do not know the majestic man
ers that belong to him, which appease and cxalt
ne behOlder. There are no divine persons with
:, and the multitude do not hasten to be divine.
nd yet-and yet-we hold fast, all our lives
ing, Il faith in better life, in better men, in
lean and noble relations. Notwithstanding our
1tal inexperience of Il true society, Certainly,
ais was not the intention of natuTe-tO produce,
all this immense expenditure of means and
over, 50 cheap and humble a result. The as
iratiOns in the heart after the good and true /
us better-nay, the men themselves sug-
est a better life. ,
rR HOUSEHOLDS SHOULD BE HOMES OF TIE BEAUTI- I
FUL AND TIE DIVINE. ,
Beyond its primary ends of the cOngural and 9
irental relation. the household should cherish !
e beautiful arts and the sentiment of veneration. )
hatever brings the dweller into Il finer life. G
hat educates his eve, his ear. or his hand. :
hatever p%urifies and enlargcs him, may well :
nd place there. And vet let him not think that +
property in beautiful objects is necessary to his +
1prehension of them, and seek to turn his house Y
to &. museum. Rather let the noble practice of :
lie Greeks find 4 place in our society, in whose
1T would seem, every statue and paint
z was public, it being considered absurd and 4
ofane to pretend a property in a work Of art, I
hich belonged to whoever could see it.
Not alOof from this homage to beauty, but in ,
connection Herewith. the house will come
be esteemed n sanctuary. The language of a '
der age has given TO common law the maxim =,
ut every mans house in his castle; the pro-
ess of truth will make every house 4 shrine. :
\ RIcH SToRT.-A pretty good story is told of a
IN who resides in the northeastern part ofthe city, 4
i we put it on record merely to show how 4 frOub- =
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