ROOF-TREE 253 



and well-feathered and modeled by the heart within 1 

 Why should he set it on a hill, when he can com- 

 mand a nook under the hill or on its side ? Why 

 should it look like an observatory, when it is a con- 

 servatory and dormitory ? 



The domestic spirit is quiet, informal, unceremo- 

 nious, loves ease, privacy, low tones; loves the 

 chimney-corner, the old arm-chair, the undress garb, 

 homely cares, children, simple pleasures, etc. ; and 

 why should it, when it seeks to house itself from 

 the weather, aim at the formal, the showy, the 

 architectural, the external, the superfluous? Let 

 state edifices look stately, but the private dwelling 

 should express privacy and coziness. 



Every man's house is in some sort an effigy of 

 himself. It is not the snails and shell-fish alone 

 that excrete their tenements, but man as well. 

 When you seriously build a house, you make public 

 proclamation of your taste and manners, or your 

 want of these. If the domestic instinct is strong 

 in you, and if you have humility and simplicity, 

 they will show very plainly in your dwelling; if 

 you have the opposite of these, false pride or a 

 petty ambition, or coldness and exclusiveness, they 

 will show also. A man seldom builds better than he 

 knows, when he assumes to know anything about it. 



I think that, on examination, it will be found 

 that the main secret of the picturesqueness of more 

 simple structures, like fences, bridges, sheds, log- 

 huts, etc., is that the motive, the principle of con- 

 struction, is so open and obvious. No doubt much 



