MORAL INFLUENCE OF GOOD HOUSES. 211 



" There is a kind of symmetry in the thoughts, feelings, and efforts 

 of the human mind. Its taste, intelligence, affections, and conduct, 

 are so intimately related, that no preconcertion can prevent them 

 from being mutually causes and effects. The first thing powerfully 

 operated upon, and, in its turn, proportionately operative, is the taste. 

 The perception of beauty and deformity, of refinement and gross- 

 ness, of decency and vulgarity, of propriety and indecorum, is the 

 first thing which influences man to attempt an escape from a grov- 

 elling, brutish character ; a character in which morality is chilled, 

 or absolutely frozen. In most persons, this perception is awakened 

 by what may be called the exterior of society, particularly by the 

 mode of building. Uncouth, mean, ragged, dirty houses, constitut- 

 ing the body of any town, will regularly be accompanied by coarse, 

 grovelling manners. The dress, the furniture, the mode of living, 

 and the manners, will all correspond with the appearance of the 

 buildings, and will universally be, in every such case, of a vulgar 

 and debased nature. On the inhabitants of such a town, it will be 

 difficult, if not impossible, to work a conviction that intelligence is 

 either necessary or useful. Generally, they will regard both learn- 

 ing and science only with contempt. Of morals, except in the 

 coarsest form, and that which has the least influence on the heart, 

 they will scarcely have any apprehensions. The rights enforced by 

 municipal law, they may be compelled to respect, and the corres- 

 ponding duties they may be necessitated to perform ; but the rights 

 and obligations which lie beyond the reach of magistracy, in which 

 the chief duties of morality are found, and from which the chief 

 enjoyments of society spring, will scarcely gain even their passing 

 notice. They may pay their debts, but they will neglect almost 

 every thing of value in the education of their children. 



" The very fact, that men see good houses built around them, 

 will, more than almost any thing else, awaken in them a sense of 

 superiority in those by whom such houses are inhabited. The same 

 sense is derived, in the same manner, from handsome dress, furni- 

 ture, and equipage. The sense of beauty is necessarily accompa- 

 nied by a perception of the superiority which it possesses over de- 

 formity ; and is instinctively felt to confer this superiority on those 

 who can call it their own, over those who cannot. 



