avors.

HOUSE AND COTTAGE FURNITURE.

This is a subject so thoroughly discussed in the books, of late, that
anything which may here be said, would avail but little, inasmuch as our
opinions might be looked upon as "old-fashioned," "out of date," and "of
no account whatever,"--for wonderfully modern notions in room-furnishing
have crept into the farm house, as well as into town houses. Indeed, we
confess to altogether ancient opinions in regard to household furniture,
and contend, that, with a few exceptions, "modern degeneracy" has
reached the utmost stretch of absurdity, in house-furnishing, to which
the ingenuity of man can arrive. Fashions in furniture change about as
often as the cut of a lady's dress, or the shape of her bonnet, and
pretty much from the same source, too--the fancy shops of Paree, once,
in good old English, Paris, the capital city of France. A farmer, rich
or poor, may spend half his annual income, every year of his life, in
taking down old, and putting up new furniture, and be kept uncomfortable
all the time; when, if he will, after a quiet, good-tempered talk with
his better-half, agree with her upon the list of _necessary_ articles to
make them _really comfortable_; and then a catalogue of what shall
comprise the _luxurious_ part of their furnishings, which, when
provided, they will fixedly make up their mind to keep, and be content
with, they will remain entirely free from one great source of "the ills
which flesh is heir to."

It is pleasant to see a young couple setting out in their housekeeping
life, well provided with convenient and properly-selected furniture,
appropriate to all the uses of the family; and then to keep, and use it,
and enjoy it, like contented, sensible people; adding to it, now and
then, as its wear, or the increasing wants of their family may require.
Old, familiar things, to which we have long been accustomed, and
habituated, make up a round share of our actual enjoyment. A family
addicted to constant change in their household furniture, attached to
nothing, content with nothing, and looking with anxiety to the next
change of fashion which shall introduce something _new_ into the house,
can take no sort of comfort, let their circumstances be ever so
affluent. It is a kind of dissipation in which some otherwise worthy
people are prone to indulge, but altogether pernicious in the
indulgence. It detracts, also, from the apparent respectability of a
family to find nothi