15 



sufificient promise, that what had been figuratively 

 expressed, might be, ultimately, realized, and the 

 whole island become, in truth, a " Garden." 



Architecture claims a conspicuous rank among the 

 arts which are subservient to rural economy ; but in 

 the United States it cannot be expected, that indi- 

 viduals should indulge that natural propensity of 

 man, for magnificent edifices ; still their establish- 

 ments may assume the beauties of a refined taste, 

 and be made to harmonize more perfectly with the 

 purposes of their appropriation, and the scenery in 

 which they are embowered, without enhancing the 

 cost of construction. The error has not been merely 

 that of negligence in the plan, indifference as to loca- 

 tion, and a disregard of all the characteristics of the 

 various orders of architecture ; but in the heedless 

 selection of materials, an ostentatious extravagance 

 in the size, and a wasteful exuberance of fancied 

 embellishments. 



There being no law of primogeniture in the Amer- 

 ican Republics, estates are continually subdivided, 

 until each portion is so reduced, as not to exceed the 

 means of general occupancy : whatever sums, there- 

 fore, are lavished on a country residence, beyond the 

 conveniences and comforts usually required by the 

 great mass of the freeholders, are lost to the heirs, 

 and often prove ruinous to the aspiring projector. 



We admire what has been done in other countries, 

 and, possessing means ample as the actual proprietor 

 of the stately edifice, rashly imitate the pleasing ex- 

 ample, without reflecting, that what we behold, has 

 been the work of successive heirs, during the lapse of 



