The love of neatness and elegance which distinguishes the cultivated from the rude man in the decoration of his dwelling, is not the only motive for these interior fittings of a modern house. There are in many instances manifest advantages, in relation to dryness and durability, resulting from such arrangements. Such is the case with respect to one of the two processes which will occupy the present chapter. In noticing the services of the house-painter, it will be found that they are conducive to something more than our love of colours and tasteful decoration, for they greatly promote the durability of wood and iron work. Wood of almost every kind is liable to injury from the effects of the atmosphere, if left unprotected; but when coated with oil-paint, its power of resisting those effects is much increased. Cleanliness is also more easily preserved where paint is employed. If a room door, for instance, were not painted, it would require the same scouring and cleaning which an uncarpeted floor so often receives, though perhaps not so frequently. When we consider, therefore, that durability, cleanliness, neatness, and pleasing decoration, are all derived from the judicious employment of oil-paint in a house, we shall conclude that a painter renders important service in the preparation of a dwelling-house. Materials used in House-painting. House-painting, in most cases, consists in laying on several coats of some mineral substances mixed up to a fluid consistence with _oil_. There is no other liquid body which is found to have so many advantages for this purpose as oil; for although turpentine, milk, beer, spirit, and other liquids are occasionally employed, oil is the standard material with which the colouring substances are mixed. The colouring substances, as well as the oils, employed in painting, are very numerous; and we can only offer a brief description of the principal among them.