AS BELATED TO TASTE. 83 



" I returned to the quarry, convinced that a very 

 exquisite pleasure may be a very cheap one, and 

 that the busiest employments may afford leisure 

 enough to enjoy it." 



There is a growing Taste among our people it is 

 sad indeed that its growth is so slow which proves 

 that honest toil does not destroy nor dwarf the ca- 

 pacity of enjoying the beautiful. It can not, how- 

 ever, be fostered by galleries of art, for they are rare 

 among us. It is upon Nature we must depend ; and 

 Landscape Gardening, by the genius of Downing, is 

 gathering scenes of tasteful beauty around many a 

 humble home. His works were to America, what 

 the Georgics were for ancient Italy. The vine and 

 the apple, the flower and the hedge, the velvet lawn 

 and stately tree, all that beautifies the landscape, 

 were objects of his care. Through his influence, 

 many places are pleasant to the eye and refining to 

 the taste, which but for him would have remained 

 rugged and neglected. 



The homes in cold, rugged New England, in the 

 sunny South, and on the western prairies, will have 

 more beauty, and the children reared there will be 



