THB 



JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. III. 



JANUARY, 1849. 



No. 7. 



No ONE loves the country more sincerely, 

 or welcomes new devotees to the worship 

 of its pure altars more warmly, than our- 

 selves. To those who bring here hearts 

 capable of understanding the lessons of truth 

 and beauty, which the Good Creator has 

 written so legibly on all his works ; to 

 those in whose nature is implanted a senti- 

 ment that interprets the tender and the 

 loving, as well as the grand and sublime 

 lessons of the universe, what a life full of 

 joy, and beauty, and inspiration, is that of 

 the country ; to such, 



"The deep recess of dusky groves. 



Or forest where llie deer securely roves, 



The fall of waters, and the song of birds. 



And hills that echo to the distant herds, 



Are luxuries, excelling all the glare 



The world can boast, and her chief fav'rites share." 



There are those who rejoice in our An- 

 glo-Saxon inheritance of the love of con- 

 quest, and the desire for boundless terri- 

 tory,' — who exult in the " manifest destiny" 

 of the race, to plant the standard of the 

 eagle or the lion in every soil, and every 

 zone of the earth's surface. We rejoice 

 much more in the love of country life, the 

 enjoyment of nature, and the taste for rural 

 beauty, which we also inherit from our 

 Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and to which, 

 more than all else, they owe so many of 

 the peculiar virtues of the race. 



Vol, III, 20 



With us, as a people, retirement to coun- 

 try life, must come to be the universal plea- 

 sure of the nation. The successful states- 

 man, professional man, merchant, trader, 

 mechanic, — all look to it as the only way of 

 enjoying the othim cum dignitate ; and the 

 great beauty and extent of our rural scene- 

 ry, as well as the absence of any great na- 

 tional capital, with its completeness of metro- 

 politan life, must render the country the most 

 satisfactory place for passing a part of every 

 man's days, who has the power of choice. 



It is not to be denied, however, that " re- 

 tirement to the country,'' which is the 

 beau-ideal of all the busy and successful 

 citizens of our towns, is not always found 

 to be the elysium which it has been fondly 

 imagined. No doubt there are good rea- 

 sons why nothing in this world should af- 

 ford perfect and uninterrupted happiness. 



''The desire of the moth t"or the star'' 



might cease, if parks and pleasure-grounds 

 could fill up the yearnings of human nature, 

 so as to leave no aspirations for futurity. 



But this is not our present meaning. 

 What we would say is, that numbers are 

 disappointed with country life, and perhaps 

 leave it in disgust, without reason, either 

 from mistaken views of its nature, of their 

 own capacities for enjoying it, or a want of 

 practical ability to govern it. 



