was
so often "How beautiful!" that it became rather a byword in the
family. Estimated by their mere money value, the articles in the rooms
were of very trifling worth; but, as they stood arranged and combined,
they had all the effect of a lovely picture. Although the statuary was
only plaster, and the photographs and lithographs such as were all
within the compass of limited means, yet every one of them was a good
thing of its own kind, or a good reminder of some of the greatest
works of art. A good plaster cast is a daguerreotype, so to speak, of
a great statue, though it may be bought for five or six dollars, while
its original is not to be had for any namable sum. A chromo lithograph
of the best sort gives all the style and manner and effect of Turner
or Stanfield, or any of the best of modern artists, though you buy it
for five or ten dollars, and though the original would command a
thousand guineas. The lithographs from Raphael's immortal picture give
you the results of a whole age of artistic culture, in a form within
the compass of very humble means. There is now selling for five
dollars at Williams & Everett's a photograph of Cheney's crayon
drawing of the San Sisto Madonna and Child, which has the very spirit
of the glorious original. Such a picture, hung against the wall of a
child's room, would train its eye from infancy; and yet how many will
freely spend five dollars in embroidery on its dress, that say they
cannot afford works of art!

There was one advantage which John and his wife found, in the way in
which they furnished their house, that I have hinted at before: it
gave freedom to their children. Though their rooms were beautiful,
it was not with the tantalizing beauty of expensive and frail
knick-knacks. Pictures hung against the wall, and statuary safely
lodged on brackets, speak constantly to the childish eye, but are
out of the reach of childish fingers, and are not upset by childish
romps. They are not, like china and crystal, liable to be used and
abused by servants; they do not wear out; they are not spoiled by
dust, nor consumed by moths. The beauty once there is always there;
though the mother be ill and in her chamber, she has no fears that she
shall find it all wrecked and shattered. And this style of beauty,
inexpensive as it is, compared with luxurious furniture, is a means
of cultivation. No child is ever stimulated to draw or to read by an
Axminster carpet or a carved centre-table; but