114 THE HOUSE 1 LIVE IN. 



But in covering the house I live in, there is 

 a long process to go through with, before we 

 come to anything like this. I will attempt to 

 describe it. 



The habitation of the soul contains no sharp 

 corners or square edges. Everything, even 

 the smallest part, is more or less rounded. It 

 seems as if the great Architect regarded round- 

 ness as a beauty, and squareness as a deformity. 

 But in a wooden building, and indeed in those 

 of brick and stone, square sides, square edges, 

 &c., appear to be regarded by the architect as 

 points of beauty. The sides of timbers, espe- 

 cially, are left square. Strip off the covering 

 from the outside, or the plastering from the 

 inside, and you expose to view, at once, these 

 square sides and edges. 



4 



THE PERIOSTEUM. How different the 

 structure of the house I live in ! Every bone 

 in the frame, as if to prevent the possibility of 

 having any rough sides or corners, is neatly 

 covered with a very thin gristly substance, 

 which is called the periosteum. Peri means 

 around, and osteum means the bone or bones. 



