We are now, perhaps, returning to renaissance art in furniture, and it is certain that collections such as those lately exhibited by Sir Richard Wallace; the Exposition Retrospective in Paris in 1865; the loan exhibitions of 1862 in London, and that of Gore house at an earlier period; and above all the great permanent collection at South Kensington, must contribute to form the public taste. In the review which we have made of what may be called the household art of so many ages, it would be difficult to assign an absolute superiority to the artists of any one generation, considering what countless beautiful objects have been made for the personal use and enjoyment of men. The sculptured thrones of ivory and gold, the seats and couches of bronze overlaid with gold and damascened with the precious metals, the inlaid chariots, tables, chests, and jewelled caskets of antiquity; the imagery, the shrines, the stalls, and roofs of the middle ages; the wood sculpture, tarsia, pietra dura, damascening and the endless variety of objects produced during the days of Leonardo, Michel Angelo, and Raphael, down to the carving of Gibbons, and the splendid work of Boule, Riesener and Gouthière, are all in various ways excellent. We must not venture to call one class of productions finer than another where the differences are so great and such high perfection has been attained in each. Every style and fashion when at its best has resulted from the utmost application of mind and time on the part of trained artists; and the highest art can never be cheap, neither can any machinery or any help from mechanical assistance become substitutes for art. Beauty which is created by the hand of man is not the clever application of mechanical forces or of scientific inventions, but is brought to light, whether it be a cabinet front or the Venus of Milo, often with pain, always by the entire devotion of the labour, the intellect, the experience, the imagination and the affection, of the artist and the workman. CHAPTER XI. CHANGES OF TASTE AND STYLE. It is interesting to trace the changes that the more common and necessary pieces of furniture have undergone during successive historic ages. The social life of ancient times, even of the middle ages which come so much nearer to us in point of years, differs from that of our own in its whole aspect. Yet though personal habits have so greatly altered the general wants of men remain much the same. Hence such objects as beds, chairs, tables, chests, dressers, wardrobes or cabinets, carriages or litters, have been always used and maintained a certain identity. With a summary of the changes of form and methods of decoration of a few of the principal objects of personal use we shall conclude. _Bedsteads and Couches._ Beds served often in antiquity and in the middle ages, and have served at all times, almost as much for sitting or reclining by day as for sleeping on at night.