decorations, and bric-a-brac which will characterize the dwellings
of a later age, would be utterly offensive to an Athenian--contradicting
all his ideas of harmony and "moderation." The Athenian house
lacks of course bookcases and framed pictures. It probably too
lacks any genuine closets. Beds, couches, chairs (usually backless),
stools, footstools, and small portable tables,--these alone seem
in evidence. In place of bureaus, dressers and cupboards, there
are huge chests, heavy and carved, in which most of the household
gear can be locked away. In truth, the whole style of Greek
household life expresses that simplicity on which we have already
commented. Oriental carpets are indeed met with, but they are
often used as wall draperies or couch covers rather than upon the
floors. Greek costume (see p. 43) is so simple that there is small
need for elaborate chests of drawers, and a line of pegs upon the
wall cares for most of the family wardrobe.

All this is true; yet what furniture one finds is fashioned with
commendable grace. There is a marked absence of heavy and unhealthful
upholstery; but the simple bed (four posts sustaining a springless
cushion stuffed with feathers or wool) has its woodwork adorned
with carving which is a true mean betwixt the too plain and the
too ornate; and the whole bed is given an elegant effect by the
magnificently embroidered scarlet tapestry which overspreads it.
The lines of the legs of the low wooden tables which are used at
the dinner parties will be a lesson (if we have time to study them)
upon just proportion and the value of subtle curves. Moreover,
the different household vessels, the stone and bronze lamps, the
various table dishes, even the common pottery put to the humblest
uses, all have a beauty, a chaste elegance, a saving touch of deft
ornamentation, which transforms them out of "kitchen ware" into