| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 27 |
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It is proven that even the natural scenery in which a child is reared has much to do with the tone and hue of its future character. Those who are cradled among the grand mountains or by the shore of the majestic sea carry into their mature years the mystic influence of those scenes; and there is no feature of a home itself or of its scenery and surroundings that does not print itself on infancy’s sensitive heart like the images on the photographer’s prepared plate, to be brought out again in the future character.
This truth is not properly appreciated. The educating effect of home decoration has not received that attention which it deserves, nor has its moral value come into general and thoughtful consideration. The subject has been discussed from the view point of art, but not from that of character culture. Much has been said and written of books, good and bad, vulgar and refining, and of the importance of putting such only as are pure and elevating into the hands of the young. In like manner, the importance of their early companionship has received much attention. But the moral effect of home adornment needs to be considered just as thoughtfully and carefully as that of either books or associations.
It is important that in the education and training of children we throw around their sensitive lives all of beauty, purity and inspiration that we can. The sites of homes should be selected with reference to this. In this regard the country has usually wonderful advantages over the city. Its lovely natural scenery is a gallery hung with the rarest beauties, and yet there are many builders of homes who seem never to give a thought to this. They choose sites for some temporary convenience or on the ground of inexpensiveness in the midst of unlovely, or even repulsive, surroundings, when at a little additional cost they could have placed their homes in the midst of picturesque scenery and refining surroundings. Apart altogether from the question of taste, the moral influence of the scenery on which the doors and windows open is of immeasurably more value than any difference in money cost. There is no refining and purifying power like that of true beauty.
Then the ornamentation of the grounds about a home furnishes another opportunity not only for the display of taste, but for the choice of important educating influences. These may be permitted to remain without any adornment whatever, open to passing hoof, trodden down, void if any trace of beauty. Former improvements may be suffered to fall into decay, leaving broken gates, tottering fences, unpainted buildings, ground overgrown with weeds, with not a lovely walk or an inch of green grass, and not a tree or shrub, not a vine or flower. Or they may be made tasteful and beautiful, with neatly painted palings, gates in order, bright green lawn, shade trees, pleasant walks, lovely plants and beds of flowers. In the mere education of taste the influence of these different surrounding is obvious, but there is a moral effect that is vastly more important. Holiness and beauty lie very close together, and the influence of all repulsiveness is toward evil.
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