HINTS TO RURAL IMPROVERS. 117 



those of our countrymen whose intelligence and refinement lead 

 them to find their happiness in country life. It is better to attempt 

 a small place, and attain perfect success, than to fail in one of 

 greater extent. 



Having pointed out what we consider indispensable to be done, 

 to assist in forming, if possible, a correct taste in those who have 

 only a natural delicacy of organization, which they miscall taste, we 

 may also add that good taste, or even a perfect taste, is often by 

 ho means sufficient for the production of really extensive works of 

 rural architecture or landscape-gardening. 



" Taste," says Cousin, in his Philosophy of the Beautiful, " is a 

 faculty indolent and passive ; it reposes tranquilly in the contem- 

 plation of the Beautiful in Nature. Genius is proud and free ; ge- 

 nius creates and reconstructs." 



He, therefore (whether as amateur or professor), who hopes to 

 be successful in the highest degree, in the arts of refined building or 

 landscape-gardening, must possess not only taste to appreciate the 

 Beautiful, but genius to produce it. Do we not often see persons 

 who have for half their lives enjoyed a reputation for correct taste, 

 suddenly lose it when they attempt to embody it in some practical 

 manner ? Such persons have only the " indolent and passive," and 

 not the " free and creative faculty." Yet there are a thousand little 

 offices of supervision and control, where the taste alone may be ex- 

 ercised with the happiest results upon a country place. It is by no 

 means a small merit to prevent any violations of good taste, if we 

 cannot achieve any great work of genius. And we are happy to 

 be able to say that we know many amateurs in this country who 

 mite with a refined taste a creative genius, or practical ability to 

 carry beautiful improvements into 'execution, which has already 

 enriched the country with beautiful examples of rural residences ; 

 and we can congratulate ourselves that, along with other traits of 

 the Anglo-Saxon mind, we have by no means failed in our inherit- 

 ance of that fine appreciation of rural beauty, and the power of de- 

 veloping it, which the English have so long possessed. 



We hope the number of those who are able to enjoy 'this most 

 refined kind of happiness will every day grow more and more nu- 



