PARADISE rN THE COUNTRY. 



555 



seclusion, and the housekeeper who provides 

 for her family with an eye to the possible or 

 probable interruption of acquaintances not 

 friends, live at very different rates ; gnd the 

 latter adds one dish to the bounty of the table, 

 perhaps, but two to its vanity. Still more 

 in the comfort and expensiveness of dress. 

 The natural and most blissful costume of 

 man in summer, all told, is shirt, slippers, 

 and pantaloons. The compulsory articles 

 of coat, suspenders, waistcoat, and cravat 

 (gloves would be ridiculous), are a tribute 

 paid to the chance of visiters, as is also, 

 probably some dollars' difference in the 

 quality of the hat. 



I say nothing of the comfort of a bad hat 

 (one you can sit upon, or water your horse 

 from, or bide the storm in, without remorse), 

 nor of the luxury of having half a dozen, 

 which you do when they are cheap, and so 

 saving the mental burthen of retaining the 

 geography of an article so easily mislaid. 

 A man is a slave to anything on his person 

 he is afraid to spoil — a slave (if he is not 

 rich, as we are not, dear reader !) to any costly 

 habiliment whatever. The trees nod no less 

 graciously (it is a pleasure to be able to say,) 

 because one's trousers are of a rational vol- 

 ume over the portion most tried by a seden- 

 tary man, nor because one's hat is of an 

 equivocal shape — having served as a non- 

 conductor between a wet log and its propri- 

 etor ; but ladies do — and especially country 

 ladies ; and even if they did not, there is 

 enough of the leaven of youth, even in phi- 

 losophers, to make them unwilling to ap- 

 pear to positive disadvantage, and unless 

 you are quite at your ease as to even the 

 ridiculous shabbiness of your outer man, 

 there is no liberty — no economical liberty, I 

 mean — in rural life. Do not mislead your- 

 self, dear reader ! I am perfectly aware 

 that a Spanish sombrero, a pair of large 

 French trousers plaited over the hips, a 

 well made English shoe, and a handsome 

 checked shirt, form as easy a costume for 

 the country as philosopher could desire. 

 But I write for men who must attain the 

 same comfort in a shirt of a perfectly inde- 

 pendent description, trousers, oftenest, that 

 have seen service as tights, and show a 

 fresher dye in the seams, a hat, price twen- | 



ty-five cents, (by the dozen,) and shoes of 

 a remediless capriciousness of outline. 



I acknowledge that such a costume is a 

 liberty with daylight, which should only be 

 taken within one's own fence, and that it is 

 a misfortune to be surprised in it by a stran- 

 ger, even there. But I wish to impress 

 upon those to whom this letter is addressed, 

 the obligations of country neighborhood as 

 to dress and table, and the expediency of 

 securing the degree of liberty which may 

 be desired, by a barrier of distance. Socia- 

 ble country neighbors, as I said before, are 

 a luxury, but they are certainly an expen- 

 sive one. Judging by data within my 

 reach, I should say that a man who could 

 live for fifteen hundred dollars a year, with- 

 in a mile of a sociable village, could have 

 the same personal comforts at ten miles dis- 

 tance for half the money. He numbers, say 

 fifteen families, in his acquaintance, and of 

 course pays at a rate of fifty dollars a fami- 

 ly for their gratification. Now it is a ques- 

 tion whether you would not rather have the 

 money in board fence or Berkshire hogs. 

 You may like society, and yet not like it at 

 such a high price. Or (but this would lead 

 me to another subject) you may prefer so- 

 ciety in a lump ; and with a house full of 

 friends in the months of June and July, live 

 in contemplative and economical solitude 

 the remainder of the year. And this latter 

 plan I take the liberty to recommend, more 

 particularly to students and authors. 



Touching " grounds." The first impulses 

 of taste are dangerous to follow, no less 

 from their blindness to unforseen combina- 

 tions, than from their expensiveness. In 

 placing your house as far from the public 

 road as possible (and a considerable distance 

 from dust and intrusion, seems at first a sine 

 qua 7ion) you entail upon yourself a very 

 costly appendage in the shape of a private 

 road, which of course must be nicely grav- 

 elled and nicely kept. A walk or drive, 

 within }-our gate, which is not hard and 

 free from weeds, is as objectionable as an 

 untidy white dress upon a lady, and she 

 would be better clad in russet, your road 

 were better covered with grass. I may as 

 well say that a hundred yards of gravel- 

 walk, properly " sccred," weeded, and roll 



