ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF COUNTRY VILLAGES. 231 



other, the principle of progress, which will not allow him to stand 

 still when he discovers that his neighbor has really made an im- 

 provement. 



Begin, then, by planting the first half-dozen trees in the public 

 streets. "They will grow," as Sir Walter observed, "while you 

 sleep ;" and once fairly settled in their new congregation, so that 

 they get the use of their arms, and especially of their tongues, it is 

 quite extraordinary what sermons they will preach to those dull and 

 tasteless villagers. Not a breeze that blows, but you will hear these 

 tongues of theirs (which some look upon merely as leaves), whisper- 

 ing the most eloquent appeals to any passer by. There are some, 

 doubtless, whose auriculars are so obtuse they they do not un- 

 derstand this language of the trees ; but let even one of these walk 

 home in a hot July day, when the sun that shines on the American 

 continent has a face brighter than California gold, and if he does 

 not return thanks devoutly for the cool shade of our half-dozen trees, 

 as he approaches them and rests beneath the* 11 cool boughs, then is 

 he a worse heathen than any piratical Malay of the Indian Ocean. 

 But even such a man is sometimes convinced, by an appeal to the 

 only chord that vibrates in the narrow compass of his soul, that 

 of utility, when he sees with surprise a fine row of trees in a vil- 

 lage, stretching out their leafy canopy as a barrier to a destructive 

 fire, that otherwise would have crossed the street and burnt down 

 the other half of the best houses in the village. 



The next step to improve the GRACELESS VILLAGE, is to persuade 

 some of those who are erecting new buildings, to adopt more taste- 

 ful models. And by this we mean, not necessarily what builders 

 call a "fancy "house," decorated with various ornaments that are sup- 

 posed to give beauty to a cottage ; but rather to copy some design, 

 or some other building, where good proportions, pleasing form, and 

 fitness for the use intended, give the beauty sought for, without call- 

 ing in the aid of ornaments, which may heighten but never create 

 beauty. If you cannot find such a house ready built to copy from, 

 procure works where such designs exist, or, still better, a rough and 

 cheap sketch from a competent architect, as a guide. Persuade 

 your neighbor, who is about to build, that even if his house is to 

 cost but $600, there is no economy that he can practise in the ex- 



