And yet through all that has been preached, through all that has been
executed, there runs a vein of truth. Each age should express itself,
not merely the thought of centuries past; still, it can expect to do
little more than take from antecedent cycles those features that will
best serve the present, adding an original touch here and there. So
far, then, as we find in the furniture of the Georgian period, or of
Louis Quinze, or even of the ancient Greeks, such suggestions as will
help us to live this twentieth-century life more comfortably and
agreeably, we may with good conscience borrow or imitate.



ANCIENT DESIGNS

Some "very eminent authorities" assure us that many of the objects of
our admiration in museums and in private collections are remnants of
the furnishings of the common households of the olden times. If the
breadth of knowledge of the "eminent authorities" is indicated by this
assertion, they must have touched only the high places in history, so
far as it records social conditions. The truth is that the household
appurtenances which have survived to our time are mostly those of the
few and not of the many, of the palace and mansion and not of the cot.
These articles were costly then and they would be costly now, and very
often quite as useless as costly. They were not found in the cottage
of the older days, and they do not belong in the cottages of the
present.

Nevertheless, many of these old designs exemplify the elementary
essentials of furniture--good materials, gracefulness, and thorough