means to study the ethics of her relations to her kind and become an
effective philanthropist, or join the league for political education and
acquire a more or less enlightened understanding of politics; but who is
to formulate for her the science of beauty, to teach her how to make the
interior aspect of her home perfect in its adaptation to her
circumstances, and as harmonious in colour and arrangement as a song
without words? She feels that these conditions create a mental
atmosphere serene and yet inspiring, and that such surroundings are as
much her birthright and that of her children as food and clothing of a
grade belonging to their circumstances, but how is it to be compassed?

Most women ask themselves this question, and fail to understand that it
is as much of a marvel when a woman without training or experience
creates a good interior _as a whole_, as if an amateur in music should
compose an opera. It is not at all impossible for a woman of good
taste--and it must be remembered that this word means an educated or
cultivated power of selection--to secure harmonious or happily
contrasted colour in a room, and to select beautiful things in the way
of furniture and belongings; but what is to save her from the thousand
and one mistakes possible to inexperience in this combination of things
which make lasting enjoyment and appropriate perfection in a house? How
can she know which rooms will be benefited by sombre or sunny tints, and
which exposure will give full sway to her favourite colour or colours?
How can she have learned the reliability or want of reliability in
certain materials or processes used in decoration, or the rules of
treatment which will modify a low and dark room and make it seem light
and airy, or "bring down" too high a ceiling and widen narrow walls so
as to apparently correct disproportion? These things are the results of
laws which she has never studied--laws of compensation and relation,
which belong exclusively to the world of colour, and unfortunately they