Excerpt from Home Decorative Work It is the inexorable rule of life that necessities shall come first; but, when these are secured, the next object always is, or should be, to add to them something of beauty. Hu man life that does not rise above the bare necessities of physi cal existence is scarcely worth the living. It is woman's pe culiar province to supply this need of beauty in the home, to cover the hard facts of life with something pleasant to look upon - something to refine and elevate. This is the primary object of the decorative arts, and we have borne it in mind in selecting these patterns. In this pleasant work we have been greatly aided by ladies who have made a specialty of the household decorative arts. Fancy work can be carried to an undesirable extreme, like every other good thing. Te have no sympathy with those who take it up as the serious business of life to the neglect of more important matters; but when all other duties are conscientiously attended to, it is then a matter worthy of time, patience and zeal. Those who are debarred, through illness, from taking part in the more active work of life, but who gladly turn to any device by which their hands may be usefully and pleasantly employed, welcome this kind of work. Wve hope that our readers may derive as much pleasure from this little volume as we have taken in preparing it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.