MR. URBAN AND A COUNTRY HOUSE 



essarily gross wants, but all wants,— fine as 

 well as gross. 



I have endeavored to demonstrate that eco- 

 nomic management need not necessarily offend 

 against the rulings of good taste. I feel sure 

 that the highest beauty of landscape will ul- 

 timately bring no loss; and I forecast confi- 

 dently the time— perhaps a century hence — 

 when all the beauties and all the economies and 

 all the humanities will be in leash. 



Again, a country home will not yield its 

 largest enjoyments to any who adopt it in vir- 

 tue of a mere whim; there must be love; and 

 with love, patience; and with patience, trust. 

 This mistress who wears the golden daffodils 

 in her hair, and the sweet violets at her girdle, 

 and heaps her lap every autumn time with 

 fruit, must be conciliated, and humored, and 

 rewarded, and flattered, and caressed. She 

 resents capricious and fitful attentions — like a 

 woman ; receiving them smilingly, and sulking 

 when they are done. 



I would not counsel any man to think of a 

 home in the country, whose heart does not, leap 

 when he seesithe first grass-tips lifting in the 

 city court-yards, and the boughs of the For- 

 sythia adrip with their golden censers. Many 

 a man mistakes a. certain pleasurable associa- 



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