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A Child's Bedroom
0 create the beautiful from materials lying near at hand,
and of small intrinsic value, is a task bringing abundant
reward and sometimes not difficult to accomplish. This is
especially true of effects in household decoration, which
          result irom Knowleage, SKIl and taste, ratnermtnan irom
lavish expenditure. Good form and good color are the only requi-
sites to the production of a successful interior. If these be secured,
no one whose opinion is worthy of attention will question the means
by which they are attained, provided that the structural and deco-
rative materials employed, stand to one another in proper relations
of cost; provided that one element does not strike a note of luxury
discordant with a neighboring element of extreme simplicity.
    To create beauty from simple elements in the surroundings of
children is a duty which the elder owe to the younger. This for
several reasons: the cultivation of taste is almost synonymous with
the cultivation of morals. Once the aesthetic idea takes possession
of the young and developing mind, lower pleasures and thoughts
are forgotten, and the desire to seek, to possess and, in many cases,
to produce the beautiful, becomes a powerful and permanent im-
pulse. In learning to appreciate beauty, the child acquires a taste
which will strengthen with time: which will add to the pleasure
of his youth, provide a means of adorning his prosperity or of con-
soling his adversity, and, at all times, place him above material
things. Beauty of surroundings, moreover, teaches the child re-
spect for order. It inspires him with the wish to preserve and
cherish the objects which he habitually touches and uses. It elim-
inates in him the tendency to mar and to destroy, which in the adult
leads to carelessness, waste, and impoverishment.
     It is imperative that this beauty should proceed from simplic-
ity. Luxurious surroundings are harmful. They suggest and in-
duce idleness. Complex forms and costly materials have an influ-
ence upon life which tells a sad story in history. On the other
hand, chasteness and restraint in form, simple, but artistic materials
are equally expressive of the character of the people who use them,
and equally formative in their influence upon the young. The art
of Savonarola's cell, and of the Puritan keeping-room or kitchen,
is higher and finer than that of the Petit Trianon. The aesthetic
faculty of the child should be fed and not surfeited.    285