RURAL TASTE AND ITS MISSION. 



of this country has thus far shown. It was not till Powers struck out for himself abold 

 and oiiginal course that he excelled in sculpture. So long as American authors followed 

 implicity the teachings of European critics, we had no American literature; but when 

 some dared to write to suit the tastes and demands of our own people, American authors 

 soon obtained an acknowledged reputation. So too has it been with Rural Taste. We had no 

 Ainei'ican houses, — save our log-houses — parks, or gardens, till Downing brought his 

 own peerless ability to the work. However gratifying the results of his labors, Avhat he 

 has accomplished should be suggestive of more vigorous exertion. 



We do not mean by anything we have said, that the established rules of art should not 

 be studied, or that very much of foreign acquisition may not be added to our own improve- 

 ments. We onl}' wish to make prominent the idea that our eiforts should be such as to 

 stamp American talent, ingenuity and taste upon our Rural Art, as well as upon the more 

 practical and useful products of our handi-work. It is manifestly useless to vie with 

 crowned heads and princely coffers in rural decoration, and indeed magnificence and splendor 

 are hardl}' compatible with democratic institutions. But one thing we can accomplish, 

 if we will — we can make our whole countiy bccmtifal. The fact that a majority of the 

 inhabitants of the rural districts hold the soil in fee simple — that intelligence and cultiva- 

 tion are more universal than in other countries, make this comparatively easy. Let cot- 

 tage after cottage, in the length and breadth of our land, tell its tale of humble happiness 

 and contentment — let trees, mile after mile, throw their refreshing shade on our highways — 

 let flowers bloom along the walks of our obscurest laborers, as well as in the luxurious 

 gardens of the wealth}', and we can well dispense with the more pretending mansion, the 

 extensive park, and the costly green-house. In our gardens and around our houses, give 

 us the emblems of quietness and repose. Let our public squares be planted with the 

 towering elm, the gigantic oak, and the stately maple, fit types of our freedom and 

 strength, together with the pine, the fir, and the spruce, to symbolise the unfading nature 

 of our institutions. Let fountains sparkle in the sunlight, and flowers perfume the free 

 air; it will make the blood bound more joyously in our veins, and attach us more strongly 

 to our native land. Let our homes be made attractive by the simple adornments, which 

 a love of nature will suggest, and we shall be bound to them by a new tie, and drawn un- 

 consciously into closer sympathy with the world around us. 



There is no wa}' in which real refinement so readily shows itself as in the decoration 

 of a home. In the idea of refinement we include not only intellectual culture, but that 

 harmony of mind and heart, that balance of thought and aflection, which fits man for 

 social life and endears him to his fellows. A coarse and vulgar nature sees nothing to ad- 

 mire in rural embellishment, while a truly cultivated man would as soon be in purgatory 

 as forced to live away fi-om the spot which his own hands have beautified, away from the 

 shade of his favorite trees, and the fragrance of his loved flowers. It is true that men 

 of high talent and superior culture are often so long separated from the country, that they 

 forget the charms which it once had for them; yet place these men in flivorable circum- 

 stances and they will turn as spontaneously to the tasteful arranging of houses, gardens, 

 and grounds, as the vine to its support. It is a mode of expressing the finer feelings of 

 humanit}', and the capability of living for higher than selfish ends. Other things being 

 equal, the advancement of Rural Taste will be exactl}' commensurate with the progress 

 of true refinement, and it is its proper mission to fix in home-like dwellings, in the living 

 green of tree and shrub and vine, the tokens of the virtue and intelligence of our citizens 



