210 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



literature and the arts flourish. Along with great orators and in- 

 spired poets, come fine architecture, and tasteful grounds and gardens. 



Let us congratulate ourselves that the new era is fairly com- 

 menced in the United States. We by no means wish to be under- 

 stood, that all our citizens have fairly passed the barrier that separates 

 utter indifference, or peurile fancy, from good taste. There are, and 

 will be, for a long time, a large proportion of houses built without 

 any definite principles of construction, except those of the most 

 downright necessity. But, on the other hand, we are glad to per- 

 ceive a very considerable sprinkling over the whole country from 

 the Mississippi to the Kennebec of houses built in such a manner, 

 as to prove at first glance, that the ideal of their owners has risen 

 above the platform of mere animal wants : that they perceive the 

 intellectual superiority of a beautiful design over a meaningless and 

 uncouth form ; and that a house is to them no longer a comfortable 

 shelter merely, but an expression of the intelligent life of man, in a 

 state of society where the soul, the intellect, and the heart, are all 

 awake, and all educated. 



There are, perhaps, few persons who have examined fully the 

 effects of a general diffusion of good taste, of well being, and a love 

 of order and proportion, upon the community at large. There are, 

 no doubt, some who look upon fine houses as fostering the pride of 

 the few, and the envy and discontent of the many ; and in some 

 transatlantic countries, where wealth and its avenues are closed to all 

 but a few not without reason. But, in this country, where integ- 

 rity and industry are almost always rewarded by more than the 

 means of subsistence, we have firm faith in the moral effects of the 

 fine arts. We believe in the bettering influence of beautiful cottages 

 and country houses in the improvement of human nature necessa- 

 rily resulting to all classes, from the possession of lovely gardens 

 and fruitful orchards. 



We do not know how we can present any argument of this 

 matter, if it requires one, so good as one of that long-ago distin- 

 guished man Dr. Dwight. He is describing, in his Travels in 

 America, the influence of good architecture, as evinced in its effects 

 on the manners and character of the inhabitants in a town in New 

 England : 



