Architecture in the United Statés. 251 
levelled, often at considerable expense. This is perfectly natural. 
On meeting with a level tract of country near a handsome stream, 
our first exclamation is apt to be, “ what a beautiful spot for a town 5” 
and in selecting ground to be passed over frequently,—perhaps in 
after ages to be constantly traversed by dense crowds, it secms proper 
that the most level should be selected. But natural as such a choice 
may seem, still it is not wise. A city on level ground can never be a 
cleanly one. Extreme muddiness may be avoided by paving, and 
extreme filth by frequent application of the scavenger’s broom; after 
all this expense, however, such a place will be filled with offens- 
ive sights and smells. The offals of shops and kitchens: will stll 
accumulate : stables will still send up their noisome effluvia, and mire 
will still every where abound. There is no sweeping so good, while 
there is none half so cheap, as that which we may receive froma 
smart shower of rain. Such a cleansing however is impossible in a 
level town. The waters, instead of forming themselves into rapid 
and healthy streams, here flood the street, or gather into pools, which 
send us in long circuits by day, and deceive our eyes by night: col- 
~ lecting the essence of every putrifying substance by our very door, 
they change from black to yellow, and from yellow :to green, while 
from day to day they load the air with loathsome smells and sicken- 
ing vapors. From this there is no escape, and in our changeful cli- 
mate it is frequent. Every one of our level cities will satisfy us-that 
this is no caricature; and if such is the case now, what will it be 
when the population becomes far denser, and poorer also, and there- 
fore less able to consult cleanliness or comfort than it is mow? ~~ 
Such a city can never be a handsome one. We may enrich it 
with marble palaces, and deck them with ivory and gold, still it will 
be heavy and gloomy and dull. Every one has read of Babylon, 
the city of sixty miles in circuit, and one hundred brazen gates. It 
was the perfection of cities, if we make evenness of ground the 
standard ; yet who that thinks of it, stretching league a 
over the same unvaried plain, does not immediately tire of its — 
formity. We turn from street to street, but the same dead level is 
before us, We look to the right and left, but the same prospect 
opens on either side; our feelings become stagnant, and we can con- 
sent to live there only by consenting to become as dull as it. 
Such is a level city. Let us now take a view of Rome. The 
simple word, ‘in Capitolium ascendit,” conveys to ™my mind, 
