To all whose minds have received an ordinary amount 

 of cultivation there are few objects more interesting than 

 the remains of antiquity, whether, like those of Greece 

 and Eome, they call up the history of the noblest works 

 of art and deeds of renown, and like those of Egypt, 

 carry back the mind to the age of primeval superstition, 

 or, like the ruins of the earth itself, they repeat the story 

 of the antediluvian periods, before the present races of 

 animals appeared. In our own country where these 

 relics of ancient times, excepting those of a geological 

 description, are almost unknown, the people in general 

 can hardly sympathize with' that love of ruins which is 

 almost a passion with some of the inhabitants of the Old 

 World. We have no ruined castles to remind us of an- 

 cient baronial splendor, and of the perils and heroism of 

 the feudal ages; no remains of gorgeous temples or tri- 

 umphal arches, to record the deeds of a past generation. 

 The ancient history of this continent lives chiefly in 

 tradition ; and the traveller who happens to discover 

 one of the few relics of ancient American architecture 

 seeks in vain for any record that will explain its character 

 or design. 



Yet the absence of the ruins of antiquity may have a 

 tendency to render our people more alive to impressions 

 from those of a humble description and of recent ori- 

 gin which abound in all places. When strolling over 

 the scenes of our own land, who has not often stopped 

 to ponder over the ruins of some old dwelling-house, and 



