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JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AM) RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. IL 



FEBRUARY, 1848. 



No. 8. 



A VERY LITTLE OBSERVATION wiU convince 

 any one that, in the United States, a new 

 era, in Domestic Architecture, is already- 

 commenced. A few years ago, and all our 

 houses, with rare exceptions, were built 

 upon the most meagre plan. A shelter 

 from the inclemencies of the weather; space 

 enough in which to eat, drink and sleep ; 

 perhaps some excellence of mechanical 

 workmanship in the details ; these were the 

 characteristic features of the great mass of 

 our dwelling-houses — and especially coun- 

 try houses — a few years ago. 



A dwelling-house, for a civilized man, 

 built with no higher aspirations than these, 

 we look upon with the same feelings that 

 inspire us when we behold the Indian, who 

 guards himself against heat and cold bj^that 

 primitive, and, as he considers it, sufficient 

 costume — a blanket. An unmeaning pile 

 of wood, or stone, serves as a shelter to the 

 bodily frame of man ; it does the same for 

 the brute animals that serve him ; the blan- 

 ket covers the skin of the savage from the 

 harshness of the elements, as the thick 

 shaggy coat protects the beasts he hunts 

 in the forest. But these are only mani- 

 festations of the grosser wants of life ; and 

 the mind of the civilized and cultivated 

 man as naturally manifests itself in fitting. 

 Vol. II. 44 



appropriate, and beautiful forms of habita- 

 tion and costume, as it does in fine and lofty 

 written thought and uttered speech. 



Hence, as society advances beyond that 

 condition, in which the primary wants of 

 human nature are satisfied, we naturally find 

 that literature and the arts flourish. Along 

 with great orators and inspired poets, come 

 fine architecture, and tasteful grounds and 

 gardens. 



Let us congratulate ourselves that the 

 new era is fairly commenced in the United 

 States. We by no means wish to be 

 understood, that all our citizens have fairly 

 passed the barrier that separates utter 

 indifference, or puerile fancy, from good 

 taste. There are, and will be, for a long 

 time, a large proportion of houses built 

 without any definite principles of construc- 

 tion, except those of the most downright 

 necessity. But, on the other hand, we are 

 glad to perceive a very considerable sprink- 

 ling over the whole country — from the Mis- 

 sissippi to the Kennebec — of liouses built 

 in such a manner, as to prove, at the first 

 glance, that the ideal of their owners has 

 risen above the platform of mere animal 

 wants : that they perceive the intellectual 

 superiority of a beautiful design over a 

 meaningless and uncouth form ; and that a 



