House and Garden 
GOOD AND 
A simple and dignified bookcase 
BAD MACHINE-MADE FURNITURE 
The ordinary oak dining table with deformed legs 
Intricate hand-wrought ornament the ma¬ 
chine cannot produce. Every human being 
is a part of Nature and he works according 
to her subtle laws. She repeats the same 
pattern millions of times, yet never two forms 
exactly alike. She never duplicates a plant- 
form, a leaf, flower, or fruit. A tree pro¬ 
duces thousands of leaves after their kind, 
but never two alike. A workman is gov¬ 
erned by the same subtle laws, so that 
each workman’s hand, guided by the ever 
changing soul, cannot repeat. As Emer¬ 
son says: “Because the soul is progress¬ 
ive it never quite repeats itself.” Hence 
if a surface is covered 
with a repetition of the 
same form, although 
they may all look alike 
to the casual observer, 
each will be found to 
have some touch, how¬ 
ever slight, of indi¬ 
viduality. This con¬ 
stant variety amidst 
uniformity is one of 
the peculiar charms of 
hand-wrought orna¬ 
ment, and it is this 
variety in myriad rep¬ 
etitions, like the tree 
before my window, 
which makes hand 
work interesting. Though the hand can 
never repeat, the machine can never vary. 
It cuts the same form thousands of times 
without the slightest change or shadow of 
variation, and this gives unpleasant stiffness 
to the whole. 
In oriental rugs, for example, one figure 
is often repeated scores of times, yet no two 
are exactly the same. Weave such a rug on 
the machine, and not the slightest difference 
coidd be detected even with a microscope. 
H erein lies the problem which only great 
artists can solve. It is to make all of these 
useful objects of beautiful line, form and 
proportion. A stupid 
person can load an 
object with much orn¬ 
amentation, but only 
a wise one can make 
it so beautiful in its 
structural lines that 
any decoration is 
superfluous. Such 
beauty unadorned can 
be produced by the 
machine when we 
cease to condemn it 
and recognize that by 
its means our houses 
may be filled with 
harmony, grace and 
beauty. 
127 
