December 2

This is the law of the house; upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy: Behold, this is the law of the house.

THIS is the true nature of the home—it is a place of Peace; the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and division. In so far as it is not this, it is not home: . . . it is then only a part of the outer world which you have roofed over, and lighted a fire in. But so far as it is a sacred place, a vestal temple, a temple of the hearth watched over by Household Gods, before whose faces none may come but those whom they can receive with love,—so far as it is this, and roof and fire are types only of a nobler shade and light,—shade as of the rock in a weary land, and light as of the Pharos in the stormy sea; ... so far it vindicates the name, and fulfils the praise, of Home.

JOHN RUSKIN

A HOME