ON THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF GOOD HOUSES. 



347 



sesses over deformit}'; and is instinctively 

 felt to confer this superiority on those who 

 can call it their own, over those who cannot. 



" This, I apprehend, is the manner in 

 which coarse society is first started towards 

 improvement ; for no objects, but those 

 which are sensible, can make any consi- 

 derable impression on coarse minds." 



The first motive which leads men to build 

 good houses is, no doubt, that of increasing 

 largely their own comfort and happiness. 

 But it is easy to see that, in this country, 

 where so many are able to achieve a home 

 for themselves, he who gives to the public 

 a more beautiful and tasteful model of a 

 habitation than his neighbors, is a benefac- 

 tor to the cause of morality, good order, and 

 the improvement of society where he lives. 

 To place before men reasonable objects of 

 ambition, and to dignify and exalt their 

 aims, cannot but be laudable in the sight 

 of all. And in a country where it is con- 

 fessedly neither for the benefit of the 

 community at large, nor that of the suc- 

 ceeding generation, to amass and transmit 

 great fortunes, we would encourage a taste 

 for beautiful and appropriate architecture, 

 as a means of promoting public virtue and 

 the general good. 



We have said beautiful and appropriate 

 architecture — not without desiring that all 

 our readers should feel the value of this 

 latter qualification as fully as we do. Among 

 the many strivings after architectural beau- 

 ty, which we see daily made by our coun- 

 trymen, there are, of course, some failures, 

 and only now and then examples of perfect 

 success. But the rock on which all novices 



split — and especially all men who have 

 thought little of the subject, and who are 

 satisfied with a feeble imitation of some 

 great example from other countries — this 

 dangerous rock is want, of fitness, or pro- 

 prictij. Almost the first principle, certainly 

 the grand principle, which an apostle of ar- 

 chitectural progress ought to preach in 

 America, is, " keep in mind propriety." 

 Do not build your dwelling-houses like tem- 

 ples, churches, or cathedrals. Let them be, 

 characteristically, dwelling-houses. And 

 more than this; always let their individu- 

 ality of purpose be fairly avowed ; let the 

 cottage be a cottage — the farm-house a 

 farm-house — the villa a villa, and the man- 

 sion a mansion. Do not attempt to build a 

 dwelling upon your farm after the fashion of 

 the town-house of your friend, the city mer- 

 chant ; do not attempt to give the modest 

 little cottage the ambitious air of the ornate 

 villa. Be assured that there is, if you will 

 search for it, a peculiar beauty that belongs 

 to each of these classes of dwellings that 

 heightens and adorns it almost magically; 

 while, if it borrows the ornaments of the 

 other, it is only debased and falsified in 

 character and expression. The most ex- 

 pensive and elaborate structure, overlaid 

 with costly ornaments, will fail to give a 

 ray of pleasure to the mind of real taste, if 

 it is not appropriate to the purpose in view, 

 or the means or position of its occupant ; 

 while the simple farm-house, rustically and 

 tastefully adorned, and ministering beauty 

 to hearts that answer to the spirit of the 

 beautiful, will weave a spell in the memory 

 not easily forgotten. 



Malaga Raisins. — These are all made by 

 merely drying the large white Muscatel 

 grape, without the addition of any ingredi- 

 ent. They are all raised within two leagues 



of the southern Spanish coast, and do not 

 succeed further inland. The Lexia raisins, 

 used for puddings, arc, however, produced 

 in the interior. 



