It will no doubt have been evident that the spirit which animates4 these pages is not utilitarian5. It would be an error to suppose that the simplicity6 we seek has anything in common with that which misers7 impose upon themselves through cupidity8, or narrow-minded people through false austerity. To the former the simple life is the one that costs least; to the latter it is a flat and colorless existence, whose merit lies in depriving one's self of everything bright, smiling, seductive.
It displeases9 us not a whit10 that people of large means should put their fortune into circulation instead of hoarding11 it, so giving life to commerce and [140]the fine arts. That is using one's privileges to good advantage. What we would combat is foolish prodigality12, the selfish use of wealth, and above all the quest of the superfluous13 on the part of those who have the greatest need of taking thought for the necessary. The lavishness14 of a M?cenas could not have the same effect in a society as that of a common spendthrift who astonishes his contemporaries by the magnificence of his life and the folly15 of his waste. In these two cases the same term means very different things—to scatter16 money broadcast does not say it all; there are ways of doing it which ennoble men, and others which degrade them. Besides, to scatter money supposes that one is well provided with it. When the love of sumptuous17 living takes possession of those whose means are limited, the matter becomes strangely altered. And a very striking characteristic of our time is the rage for scattering18 broadcast which the very people have who ought to husband their resources. Munificence19 is a benefit to society, that we grant willingly. Let us even allow that the prodigality of certain rich men is a [141]safety-valve for the escape of the superabundant: we shall not attempt to gainsay20 it. Our contention21 is that too many people meddle22 with the safety-valve when to practice economy is the part of both their interest and their duty: their extravagance is a private misfortune and a public danger.
SO much for the utility of luxury.
We now wish to explain ourselves upon the question of esthetics—oh! very modestly, and without trespassing23 on the ground of the specialists. Through a too common illusion, simplicity and beauty are considered as rivals. But simple is not synonymous with ugly, any more than sumptuous, stylish24 and costly25 are synonymous with beautiful. Our eyes are wounded by the crying spectacle of gaudy26 ornament27, venal28 art and senseless and graceless luxury. Wealth coupled with bad taste sometimes makes us regret that so much money is in circulation to provoke the creation of such a prodigality of horrors. Our contemporary art suffers as much from the want of simplicity as does our literature—too much in it that is irrelevant29, over-wrought30, falsely imagined. Rarely is it given us to contemplate31 in line, form, or color, that simplicity allied32 to perfection which commands the eyes as evidence does the mind. We need to be rebaptized in the ideal purity of immortal33 beauty which puts its [142]seal on the masterpieces; one shaft34 of its radiance is worth more than all our pompous35 exhibitions.
YET what we now have most at heart is to speak of the ordinary esthetics of life, of the care one should bestow36 upon the adornment37 of his dwelling38 and his person, giving to existence that luster39 without which it lacks charm. For it is not a matter of indifference40 whether man pays attention to these superfluous necessities or whether he does not: it is by them that we know whether he puts soul into his work. Far from considering it as wasteful41 to give time and thought to the perfecting, beautifying and poetizing of forms, I think we should spend as much as we can upon it. Nature gives us her example, and the man who should affect contempt for the ephemeral splendor42 of beauty with which we garnish43 our brief days, would lose sight of the intentions of Him who has put the same care and love into the painting of the lily of an hour and the eternal hills.
But we must not fall into the gross error of confounding true beauty with that which has only the name. The beauty and poetry of existence lie in the understanding we have of it. Our home, our [143]table, our dress should be the interpreters of intentions. That these intentions be so expressed, it is first necessary to have them, and he who possesses them makes them evident through the simplest means. One need not be rich to give grace and charm to his habit and his habitation: it suffices to have good taste and good-will. We come here to a point very important to everybody, but perhaps of more interest to women than to men.
Those who would have women conceal44 themselves in coarse garments of the shapeless uniformity of bags, violate nature in her very heart, and misunderstand completely the spirit of things. If dress were only a precaution to shelter us from cold or rain, a piece of sacking or the skin of a beast would answer. But it is vastly more than this. Man puts himself entire into all that he does; he transforms into types the things that serve him. The dress is not simply a covering, it is a symbol. I call to witness the rich flowering of national and provincial45 costumes, and those worn by our early corporations. A woman's toilette, too, has something to say to us. The more meaning there is in it, the greater its worth. To be truly beautiful, it must tell us of beautiful things, things personal and veritable. [144]Spend all the money you possess upon it, if its form is determined46 by chance or custom, if it has no relation to her who wears it, it is only toggery, a domino. Ultra-fashionable dress, which completely masks feminine personality under designs of pure convention, despoils47 it of its principal attraction. From this abuse it comes about that many things which women admire do as much wrong to their beauty as to the purses of their husbands and fathers. What would you say of a young girl who expressed her thoughts in terms very choice, indeed, but taken word for word from a phrase-book? What charm could you find in this borrowed language? The effect of toilettes well-designed in themselves but seen again and again on all women indiscriminately, is precisely48 the same.
I can not resist citing here a passage from Camille Lemonnier, that harmonizes with my idea.
"Nature has given to the fingers of woman a charming art, which she knows by instinct, and which is peculiarly her own—as silk to the worm, and lace-work to the swift and subtle spider. She is the poet, the interpreter of her own grace and ingenuousness49, the spinner of the mystery in which her wish to please arrays itself. All the talent she [145]expends in her effort to equal man in the other arts, is never worth the spirit and conception wrought out through a bit of stuff in her skillful hands.
"Well, I wish that this art were more honored than it is. As education should consist in thinking with one's mind, feeling with one's heart, expressing the little personalities50 of the inmost, invisible I,—which on the contrary are repressed, leveled down by conformity,—I would that the young girl in her novitiate of womanhood, the future mother, might early become the little exponent51 of this art of the toilet, her own dressmaker in short—she who one day shall make the dresses of her children. But with the taste and the gift to improvise52, to express herself in that masterpiece of feminine personality and skill—a gown, without which a woman is no more than a bundle of rags."
The dress you have made for yourself is almost always the most becoming, and, however that may be, it is the one that pleases you most. Women of leisure too often forget this; working women, also, in city and country alike. Since these last are costumed by dressmakers and milliners, in very doubtful imitation of the modish53 world, grace has almost [146]disappeared from their dress. And has anything more surely the gift to please than the fresh apparition54 of a young working girl or a daughter of the fields, wearing the costume of her country, and beautiful from her simplicity alone?
These same reflections might be applied55 to the fashion of decorating and arranging our houses. If there are toilettes which reveal an entire conception of life, hats that are poems, knots of ribbon that are veritable works of art, so there are interiors which after their manner speak to the mind. Why, under pretext56 of decorating our homes, do we destroy that personal character which always has such value? Why have our sleeping-rooms conform to those of hotels, our reception-rooms to waiting-rooms, by making predominant a uniform type of official beauty?
What a pity to go through the houses of a city, the cities of a country, the countries of a vast continent, and encounter everywhere certain forms, identical, inevitable57, exasperating58 by their repetition! How esthetics would gain by more simplicity! Instead of this luxury in job lots, all these decorations, pretentious59 but vapid60 from iteration, we should have an infinite variety; happy improvisations would [147]strike our eyes, the unexpected in a thousand forms would rejoice our hearts, and we should rediscover the secret of impressing on a drapery or a piece of furniture that stamp of human personality which makes certain antiques priceless.
Let us pass at last to things simpler still; I mean the little details of housekeeping which many young people of our day find so unpoetical. Their contempt for material things, for the humble61 cares a house demands, arises from a confusion very common but none the less unfortunate, which comes from the belief that beauty and poetry are within some things, while others lack them; that some occupations are distinguished62 and agreeable, such as cultivating letters, playing the harp63; and that others are menial and disagreeable, like blacking shoes, sweeping64, and watching the pot boil. Childish error! Neither harp nor broom has anything to do with it; all depends on the hand in which they rest and the spirit that moves it. Poetry is not in things, it is in us. It must be impressed on objects from without, as the sculptor65 impresses his dream on the marble. If our life and our occupations remain too often without charm, in spite of any outward distinction they may have, it is because we have [148]not known how to put anything into them. The height of art is to make the inert66 live, and to tame the savage67. I would have our young girls apply themselves to the development of the truly feminine art of giving a soul to things which have none. The triumph of woman's charm is in that work. Only a woman knows how to put into a home that indefinable something whose virtue68 has made the poet say, "The housetop rejoices and is glad." They say there are no such things as fairies, or that there are fairies no longer, but they know not what they say. The original of the fairies sung by poets was found, and is still, among those amiable69 mortals who knead bread with energy, mend rents with cheerfulness, nurse the sick with smiles, put witchery into a ribbon and genius into a stew70.
IT is indisputable that the culture of the fine arts has something refining about it, and that our thoughts and acts are in the end impregnated with that which strikes our eyes. But the exercise of the arts and the contemplation of their products is a restricted privilege. It is not given to everyone to possess, to comprehend or to create fine things. Yet there is a kind of ministering beauty [149]which may make its way everywhere—the beauty which springs from the hands of our wives and daughters. Without it, what is the most richly decorated house? A dead dwelling-place. With it the barest home has life and brightness. Among the forces capable of transforming the will and increasing happiness, there is perhaps none in more universal use than this beauty. It knows how to shape itself by means of the crudest tools, in the midst of the greatest difficulties. When the dwelling is cramped71, the purse limited, the table modest, a woman who has the gift, finds a way to make order, fitness and convenience reign72 in her house. She puts care and art into everything she undertakes. To do well what one has to do is not in her eyes the privilege of the rich, but the right of all. That is her aim, and she knows how to give her home a dignity and an attractiveness that the dwellings73 of princes, if everything is left to mercenaries, cannot possess.
Thus understood, life quickly shows itself rich in hidden beauties, in attractions and satisfactions close at hand. To be one's self, to realize in one's natural place the kind of beauty which is fitting there—this is the ideal. How the mission of [150]woman broadens and deepens in significance when it is summed up in this: to put a soul into the inanimate, and to give to this gracious spirit of things those subtle and winsome74 outward manifestations75 to which the most brutish of human beings is sensible. Is not this better than to covet76 what one has not, and to give one's self up to longings77 for a poor imitation of others' finery?
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1
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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2
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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animates
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| v.使有生气( animate的第三人称单数 )；驱动；使栩栩如生地动作；赋予…以生命 | |
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5
utilitarian
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| adj.实用的，功利的 | |
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6
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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7
misers
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| 守财奴，吝啬鬼( miser的名词复数 ) | |
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8
cupidity
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| n.贪心，贪财 | |
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9
displeases
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| 冒犯，使生气，使不愉快( displease的第三人称单数 ) | |
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10
whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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11
hoarding
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| n.贮藏；积蓄；临时围墙；囤积v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的现在分词 ) | |
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12
prodigality
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| n.浪费，挥霍 | |
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13
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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14
lavishness
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| n.浪费，过度 | |
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15
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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16
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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17
sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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18
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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19
munificence
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| n.宽宏大量，慷慨给与 | |
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gainsay
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| v.否认，反驳 | |
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contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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meddle
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| v.干预，干涉，插手 | |
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23
trespassing
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| [法]非法入侵 | |
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stylish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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venal
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| adj.唯利是图的，贪脏枉法的 | |
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irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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32
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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adornment
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| n.装饰；装饰品 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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luster
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| n.光辉；光泽，光亮；荣誉 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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41
wasteful
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| adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的 | |
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42
splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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garnish
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| n.装饰，添饰，配菜 | |
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44
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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45
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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46
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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47
despoils
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的第三人称单数 ) | |
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48
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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49
ingenuousness
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| n.率直；正直；老实 | |
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50
personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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51
exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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52
improvise
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| v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成 | |
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53
modish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的 | |
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54
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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55
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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56
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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57
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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58
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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59
pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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60
vapid
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| adj.无味的；无生气的 | |
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61
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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62
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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63
harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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68
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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69
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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stew
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| n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑 | |
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71
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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72
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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73
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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74
winsome
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| n.迷人的，漂亮的 | |
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75
manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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76
covet
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| vt.垂涎；贪图(尤指属于他人的东西) | |
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77
longings
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| 渴望，盼望( longing的名词复数 ) | |
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