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landscape. Indeed, to build a house that shall not 

 offend the wise eye, that shall not put Nature and all 

 her gentle divinities to shame, is the great problem. 

 In such matters, not to displease the eye is to please 

 the heart. 



Probably the most that is to be aimed at in do- 

 mestic architecture is negative beauty, a condition of 

 things which invites or suggests beauty to those who 

 are capable of the sentiment, because a house, truly 

 viewed, is but a setting, a background, and is not to 

 be pushed to the front and made much of for its own 

 sake. It is for shelter, for comfort, for health and 

 hospitality, to eat in and sleep in, to be born in and 

 to die in, and it is to accord in appearance with 

 homely every-day usages, and with natural, universal 

 objects and scenes. Indeed, is anything but negative 

 beauty to be aimed at in the interior decorations as 

 well ? The hangings are but a background for the 

 pictures and are to give tone and atmosphere to the 

 rooms, while the whole interior is but a background 

 for the human form, and for the domestic life to be 

 lived there. 



It may be observed that what we call beauty of 

 nature is mainly negative beauty ; that is, the mass, 

 the huge rude background, made up of rocks, trees, 

 hills, mountains, plains, water, etc., has not beauty as 

 a positive quality, visible to all eyes, but affords the 

 mind the conditions of beauty, namely : health, 

 strength, fitness, etc., beauty being an experience of 

 the beholder. Some things, on the other hand, as 



