198 NORTH KENNEBEC SOCIETY: 



The mansion, or the cottage, tlie occupant of wbich is not 

 careful and neat, or whose pride, if we may call it so, leads him 

 to violate all the laws of reason and taste, is an unattractive, 

 and will soon become, a worthless affair. But the humblest, 

 the most unpretending abode, the master of which is diligent 

 and careful, observant of what is necessary and prompt to make 

 improvements and repairs, is a goodly dwelling, with beautiful 

 surroundings and fitting decorations, and any man of cultivated 

 mind, would esteem himself honored to bo invited into it, or to 

 be made welcome at its frugal board. He would be charmed 

 by the fitness of things, not by their pecuniary value. Every 

 thing might be simple and cheap, yet every thing would be sat- 

 isfactory — every room, every article of furniture, every piece 

 of crockery, — every thing inside, every thing outside. The 

 stately, majestic elm, with wide-spreading, pendulous branches, 

 shades the grass and walks. Tliat, cost no money, — only a lit- 

 tle labor. God made it grow. And what if there is no ivy or 

 honey suckle climbing the wall or the trellis ? the bean-vine and 

 the hop-vine, or the white and scarlet runners, do as well, — 

 surprise the visiter or guest with their marvellous grace and 

 beauty. Often, indeed, the simple architecture, the tasteful 

 and appropriate disposition, and the skillfully or artistically 

 arranged decorations of the man of limited means, are admira- 

 ble; while the costly and ostentatious dwelling of the man 

 of great wealth, pillared and porticoed and overwrouglit with 

 carvings, and other ornamental work, and dazzling your eye 

 with its blazing white walls, and its scarlet windows, is an 

 offense, an abomination. The first mentioned home, is pictur- 

 esque or beautiful. This one is the monument of bad taste and 

 vanity. 



You will copy the example of tlie Infinite Wisdom in nature, 

 in producing the results of utility and beauty combined, upon 

 y^our farms. 



I don't suppose that I must labor here to convince any one 

 that a farm should be substantially and handsomely fenced, or 

 that it should be thoroughly and carefully cultivated, or that it 

 should be divided into woodland, pasture, and field, with refer- 

 ence to soil, position, the sun and tlie winds, or that it should 

 be bordered on the road-side with maples and elms, patched 

 liere and there, or in favorable localities, with orchards and 



