XX. Mottoes for the House

It has been said that a room should express in its decoration and furnishing something of the individuality and characteristics of its occupants, and that its general aspect should inform us in an inarticulate way of the kind of person who lives there.

It must be confessed, however, that the expression of personality which a room is capable of conveying in this way is not very explicit and may be misleading, but when decoration becomes articulate in the writing on the wall it affords a more definite revelation of the character and tastes of is owner.

In an age when conversation is often limited to trivial and insignificant Subjects, such a form of expression is not without its uses, helping us to understand something of the ideas and conceptions of life which a man is prepared to subscribe to.

But the instinctive reticence which makes us unwilling to blurt out our thoughts to every acquaintance may suggest the advisability of making these writings somewhat cryptic in their character, and to still further conceal the heart of our mystery it may be well that they should not only be written somewhat illegibly but also in a foreign tongue. Mottoes should then be disposed with the idea of decorating a space with a compact and definite form, and only on closer inspection should they be decipherable. The blatant use of mottoes will only remind one of the advertisement at the railway stations; and however much we admire or believe m some ancient proverb or modern epigram, it will soon be transformed into an insipid platitude if it forces itself upon our attention day after day.

In giving a few examples of mottoes here I do not suggest that they would be appropriate to a special individual. The choice of mottoes is such a personal -matter that every one who wishes to include them in a decorative scheme should choose their own.

In the studio, for instance, a helpful idea may be expressed in the phrase “II n’y a rien plus.” Few would recognise the force and application of such a phrase, for it would be necessary to remember the anecdote of the famous French painter whose reply it was to the friend who asked why he was still at work. However much beside there may be in the outside world it will be well to remember, in the studio at any rate, that there is nothing else but the work in hand.

Or, again, the spirit of the artist may find expression in Kipling’s The depth and dream of my desire, / The bitter paths wherein I stray, / Thou knowest who has made the fire, / Thou knowest who has made the clay.

Or perhaps the student may turn to the Proverbs of Solomon and find a stimulus in the following:

In all labour there is profit, But the folding of the hands leadeth only to penury, with perhaps a cynical afterthought to the modern application of this saying to cases where the profit ot the labour is indeed forthcoming but is not enjoyed by the labourer. Or, perhaps, in view of those menacing difficulties which vanish when the task is once begun, another proverb might be pictorially represented The slothful man has said, There is a lion in the path.

In the dining-room the mottoes may be in a less heroic strain, such as:

Stay me with flagons, Comfort me with apples, from the Song of Songs: or from Omar Khayyam:

Ah! fill the cup, what boots it to repeat / How Time is slipping underneath our feet? / Unborn to-morrow and dead yesterday, / Why fret about them if to-day be sweet? which might perhaps be inscribed in the original decorative Arabic.

In the bedroom sleep may be invited in many a classic and poetic phrase To Mary Queen the praise be given, She sent the gentle sleep from Heav’n / That slid into my soul.

And

Sleep that knitteth up the ravell’d sleeve of care may be quoted as examples from Coleridge and Shakespeare: For a picture-gallery But so many examples of mottoes suggest themselves for the apartments of the house that it would not be difficult to fill a book with appropriate quotations, and the space at my disposal only enables me here to suggest a few.

In their application an excellent idea is suggested by R. L. Stevenson, who wished to procure a set of gilded letters in metal which might be fixed easily to woodwork, and by means of which special mottoes might be arranged for special occasions, and this temporary use of mottoes would admit of a much larger range of sayings grave and gay.