REVIE>f. 



uni|Ui'stioiii'd, and it would not W so uiinafural, thon, for a i)nrc'Tit to labor for money, so 

 that his son mii^lit enjoy the rightful oi)i)ortuiiity to live an easy life of elevated action and 

 nohle exertion." 



Tlie iiumher of poor rich men is bccomiiijz; every day frreiiter in tliis Union. 

 The mere rise of real estate has placed very many in independent circumstances 

 wliiclj they know not how to enjoy, from neji^iected education and energies tlirown 

 away. Some retire to the country, but when the architect and the planter have 

 been dismissed, they feel an utter vacuity of mind, and if they are not famous 

 sleepers, they ^o to the bottle or the card table. Had they been taught a single 

 branch of natural history, or imbibed a love for a garden and for trees, their time 

 would never hang heavily on tlieir hands. 



Education siiould begin early. "The lack of taste all over the country, in small 

 buildings, is a decided bar to healthy, social enjoyments ; * * a refined propriety, 

 and simple, inexpensive grace, ought habitually to be the distinctive marks of every 

 habitation in which a free American dwells." 



" I'n fortunately, however," continues our author, "this is not the case. Even the village 

 school it--elf, in which the earliest and most active germs of })rogressive thought are com- 

 menced, is almost univ(>rsally a naked, shabby structure, without a tree or a shrub near it, 

 and is remarkable chielly for an air of coarse neglect that pervades its whole aspect. The 

 improvement of the village school-house is probably the most powerful and available lever 

 that can be applied toward ell'ecting a change for the better in the appearance of rural 

 buildings generally : all see it, all are interested in it, and all are more or less influenced 

 by its conduct and appearance. It is placed under the control of the leading men in each 

 place, and it might easily be made the most cheerful and soul-satisfying building in the 

 neighborhood, instead of, as at present, a God-forsaken, forlorn-looking affair, that is calcu- 

 lated to chill the heart and insult the eye of every thoughtful beholder. The cost would 

 be utterly incommensurate with the advantage to be obtained. An extra hundred or liun- 

 dred and fifty dollars at first starting, would do much. The roof might then have a good 

 projection, and be neatly finished. Some sort of simple porch might be added, the chiumey 

 might be slightly ornamented, and the rest would then depend on proportion, color, and 

 surrounding the building, from time to time, with shrubs, creeping vines, and young trees. 

 Tliese, in after years, would ofier a welcome shade, and give an air of domestic comfort and 

 liljeral vitality to the whole effect. A similar result, through precisely similar means, would 

 probably, in course of time, be arrived at in the small cottages in its vicinity, and, as suc- 

 cess would be cheap and invariable, the example would have a fair chance of spreading." 



It is one of our painful duties to pass several times a month a public school- 

 house near Philadelphia, where a large collection of children are supposed to be 

 educated ; every inch of the yard, not trodden over, is filled with the vilest weeds, 

 and in wet weather the approach is through deep mud. What can be expected 

 of children when they are educated to think such a scene even bearable? The 

 selection of the directors, or of the teachers, in this particular instance, must have 

 been an error. 



There is much, in the same strain of good sense, which our limits forbid us from 

 copying. One additional extract will afford the reader an opportunity of judging 

 of the merit of the book, which we have the more pleasure in commending, because 

 it has not been sent to us for notice : — 



" It has been, and is too much the custom, both in town and country houses, to consider 

 the dining-room as a part of the house to be used solely for eating and drinking purposes, 

 and to give it but little attention for that reason. It is, indeed, quite common to find, even 

 in comparatively large houses, a meagrely-furnished apartment in the basement set apart 

 as the scene of whatever daily festivity is carried on in the house. 



" If a country residence is built on sloping ground, so that the basement rooms on one 

 front are entirely unobstructed, and are supplied with windows overlooking the garden, this 

 objection is not so strong. But even then, the trouble of going up and down stairs to and 

 from the sitting-room is annoying, and it is far preferable to have both rooms near together 



