the summer noon
All things are according to the ideas and feelings with which they are connected ; and if , as old George Herbert says , dusting a room is an act of religious grace when it is done from a feeling of religious duty , furnishing a house is a process of high enjoyment when it is the preparation of a home for happy love . The dwelling is hung all round with bright anticipations , and crowded with blissful thoughts , spoken by none , perhaps , but present to all . On this table , and by this snug fireside , will the cheerful winter breakfast go forward , when each is about to enter on the gladsome business of the day ; and that sofa will be drawn out , and those window-curtains will be closed , when the intellectual pleasures of the evening -- the rewards of the laborious day -- begin . Those ground-windows will stand open all the summer noon , and the flower stands will be gay and fragrant ; and the shaded parlour will be the cool retreat of the wearied husband , when he comes in to rest from his professional toils . There will stand the books destined to refresh and refine his higher tastes ; and there the music with which the wife will indulge him . Here will they first feel what it is to have a home of their own -- where they will first enjoy the privacy of it , the security , the freedom , the consequence in the eyes of others , the sacredness in their own . Here they will first exercise the graces of hospitality , and the responsibility of control .