Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1905-02-15

able, like backing shoes, sweeping AID
watching the pot boil Childish error!
Neither harp nor broom has anything
to do with it. All depends on the hand
in which they rest and the spirit that
moves it. Poetry is not in things; it
is In us. 1t must be impressed on OBJ
jects from without, as the sculptor inn
presses his dream on the marble. If
our life and our occupations remain
too often without charm in spite of any
outward distinction they may have it is
because we have not known how to put
anything into them. The height of art
Is to make the inert live and to tame
the savage. | would have our young
girls apply themselves TO the develop
ment of the truly feminine art of Civ
ing soul to things which have none.
The triumph of woman's charm is in
that work. Only W ,man knows how to-
put into a home that indefinable some
thing whose virtue has made the poet
say, '"The house top rejoices and is
glad" They say there are no such
things as fairies or that there are.
fairies no longer. but they know not
what they say. The original of the
fairies sung by poets was found and is
still among those amiable mortals who
knead bread with energy. mend rents
with cheerfulness. nurse the sick with
smiles. put witchery into a ribbon and
genius into a stew.
1t is indisputable that the culture of
the fine arts has something refining
about it and that our thoughts and
acts are in the end impregnated with
that which strikes our eyes. But the
exercise of the arts and the contempla-
tion Of their products are restricted
privileges. 1t is not given to every one
to possess, to comprehend or to create
fine things. Yet there is kind OF
ministering beauty which may make
its way everywhere-theb beauty which
springs from the hands Of our wives
and daughters. Without it what is
the most richly decorated house? A
dead dwelling place. With 1t the bar
est home has life and brightness
Among the forces capable of trans
forming the will and increasing happi-
ness there is perhaps none. in more
universal use than this beauty. II
knows how to shape itself by means
of the crudest tools in the midst Of
the greatest difficulties. When the
dwelling Is cramped, the purse limited,
the table modest, a woman who has
the Gift finds n way to make order.
fitness and convenience reign in her
house. She puts care and art into
everything she undertakes. To do well
what one has to do.is not in her eyes
the privilege of the rich, but the right
of all. That is her aim, and she knows
how to give her home a dignity and an
attractiveness that the dwellings Of
princes, if everything Is left to mer-
cenaries. cannot possess.
Thus understood life quickly shows
itself rich in hidden beauties, in at
fractions and satisfactions close at
hand. To be oneself, to realize in ones
natural place the kind of beauty which
is fitting there-ths is the ideal. How
the mission of woman broadens and
deepens in significance when it is sum-
med up in this: To put a soul into the
inanimate and to give to this gracious
spirit of things those subtle and win
some outward manifestations to which
the most british of human beings is
sensible! Is not this better than to
covet what one has not and to give
oneself up to longings for poor i'm
itation of others fnery?