256 Architecture in the United States. 
pose this variety of trees were disposed in the form of uniform av- 
enues, stretching far as the eye could reach, whould he then be 
greatly pleased? But suppose these avenues in every variety, now 
broad and open, now shaded and narrow, one while opening to a 
wide stretch of landscape, and at another pointing to a rocky 
glen: how our feelings change at the thought! This is the effect 
of variety. No city then should be uniform, not even uniform 
in beauty, or it will pall and tire. I love, myself, in traversing a 
city to be taken by surprise; to be able to anticipate some new 
form, or combination of forms, at every turn; to have my admira- — 
tion constantly drawn upon by the taste and judgment shewn in - 
these combinations, and to have the city swell out and magnify its 
dimensions from my only half successful effort to comprehend them. 
A word or two on. this last subject: it is of no great consequence, 
but should not be altogether neglected, in our discussion. Every 
one will recollect his surprise on ascending a steeple in an irregular 
town, or an adjoining eminence, and looking down on it to find it so 
small: it is but a:short time since I took such a view of Hartford, 
and found it but little more than half as large as [had imagined. This 
is natural: the constant effect of partial obscurity is to magnify, and 
no one will neglect it when he wishes to strike us by the vast or 
grand. recollect my chagrin at Niagara Falls, when after a toil- 
some effort to see it from every point, I found that the best view was 
most easily had. It was on a spot some dozen or twenty yards S. 
W. from the table rock...The water there rushes by our feet, in 
large volume and with terrific rapidity, is precipitated over the ledge 
and lost to our sight: further on we can trace the roaring element 
nearly to the bottom, but the bottom can no where be seen, and 
from the shaking of the ground, the deep roar and the spray, oUt 
eee makes the descent twice as great as it really is. 
_ The conclusion then from the whole is this: that rectangles are 
convenient for building, and should therefore be used ; but that they 
produce a tiresome sameness, against which we should carefully 
guard : tl that r change 
of place ; that they keep our interest alive by their variety, and other 
things being equal, affect us most by their size. Each has its ad- 
vantages : they may be easily combined, and I shall proceed to some 
= _Yemarks on the best character of such a combination. 
; __ im laying out a town, we should first carefully study the ground. 
_ “here are no places, even the most level, that do not offer i in some 
