OF WHAT USE IS RURAL TASTE? 



accumulating in the ejes of his associates; but, it is the man who receives with one hand, 

 to syteud prudently with the other, that in every social community, is the advancer of the 

 wealth of his country. Because he, it is, that in so doing, provides the market for the labor 

 of industry, and the money to pay the well eained wages of the gifted artisan. 



But do these principles apply to the question before us? Undoubtedly they do, for if it 

 be conceded that these couvenienciesof life are proper, and tend to the increase of national 

 prosperity when applied to city life, they will be found equally true when directed to 

 country life and rural taste. Because in the latter case as in the former, it is impossible 

 to put them in practice without some expenditure, be it greater or less, which again 

 affoi'ds the means of livelihood or of increased comforts to those engaged in the produc- 

 tion of its refinements. 



There are other considerations of equal and even of greater weight, which evince as 

 distinctly the " use " of rural taste. Diligence and activity of body and mind are no 

 less benePicial to us, in thepersuit of our innocent amusements, than they are instrumental 

 to our prosperity in business occupations; and whether we turn our thoughts to the private 

 gentleman, or to the merchant retired from busy life — to the farmer, or to the artizan in 

 his cottage, we shall not be disappointed in our expectation, if we calculate upon finding 

 that each one, who employs his leisure hours, be they many or few, in the embellishment 

 of his country home, adds thereby daily accessions to his stock of health, while he at 

 the same time imparts renewed elasticity to his mental energies by their healthy exercise 

 in his favorite pursuits. And we are sure it will be granted that to add increased health 

 to body and mind is to make good " use " of our time, whatever be its employment. 



Another and a great "use," (the importance of which it is scarcely possible to over- 

 estimate,) in the cultivation of rural taste, is to be found in the powerful influence which 

 experience bears testimony to its exercising, over the social intercourse of a neighborhood. 

 "We could, in support of this view, instance numerous parts of our country which, happily, 

 are ever present proofs of its truth. The kindly relations, the good offices, and the in- 

 terest in each other's rural enjoyments, which the practice and extension of rural taste in 

 any neighborhood, never fails to draw forth, are ample proofs, that if it be commendable 

 " to love one another; " to contribute to the comforts of our neighbors; and to associate 

 our rising generation with a state of things around them that is calculated to call forth 

 their study of the adaptation of nature to the social wants of man: if these objects are 

 commendable, then rural taste has its " use." 



Moreover, if we have failed to convince by om- arguments, we have only to appeal to 

 the unerring evidence of the history of the world, to find a proof that there is a " use" 

 in rural taste. For that, be it what it may, which experience shows to have been a constant 

 requirement of every succeeding generation of man, must, by us in our generation, be 

 admitted to be a ivavt of the human race. And that which supplies a Mant which has 

 proved so constant as to be universal in its extent, must be admitted to have its appro- 

 priate use. From the garden of Eden to the gardens of Sol&mon, who " phinted himself 

 vineyards, and made gardens and orchards, and planted trees in them of all kinds of 

 fruits, and pools of water therewith, to water the wood that bringeth forth trees; " and 

 again, from the hanging gardens of Babylon to those of the Athenians, (who Meason ob- 

 serves " preferred a lesidence in the country, and in villa gardening borrowed from Asia 

 Minor,") the evidence of history, both sacred and profane, bears one continued stream of 

 testimony to the love for and pursuit of rural taste. The direction of it, has varied with 

 time and place, but its influence upon man has been as continuous as the return 

 seasons. ' B. Mu 



