238 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



trees, to hide the nakedness of the streets ; and thou shalt not keep 

 pigs except in the back yard ! * 



Our more reflective and inquiring readers will naturally ask, why 

 is this better condition of things a condition that denotes better 

 citizens, better laws, and higher civilization confined almost wholly 

 to Massachusetts ? To save them an infinite deal of painstaking, re- 

 search and investigation, we will tell them in a few words. That 

 State is better educated than the rest. She sees the advantage, mor- 

 ally and socially, of orderly, neat, tasteful villages ; in producing 

 better citizens, in causing the laws to be respected, in making homes 

 dearer and more sacred, in making domestic life and the enjoyment 

 of property to be more truly and rightly estimated. 



And these are the legitimate and natural results of this kind of 

 improvement we so ardently desire in the outward life and appear- 

 ance of rural towns. If our readers suppose us anxious for the build- 

 ing of good houses, and the planting of street avenues, solely that 

 the country may look more beautiful to the eye, and that the taste 

 shall be gratified, they do us an injustice. This is only the external 

 sign by which we would have the country's health and beauty 

 known, as we look for the health and beauty of its fair daughters in 

 the presence of the rose on Jheir cheeks. But as the latter only 

 blooms lastingly there, when a good constitution is joined with 

 healthful habits of mind and body, so the tasteful appearance which 

 we long for in our country towns, we seek as the outward mark 

 of education, moral sentiment, love of home, and refined cultiva- 

 tion, which makes the main difference between Massachusetts and 

 Madagascar. 



We have, in a former number, said something as to the practi- 

 cal manner in which "graceless villages" may be improved. We 

 have urged the force of example in those who set about improving 



* We believe we must lay this latter sin at the doors of our hard-working 

 emigrants from the Emerald Isle. Wherever they settle, they cling to their 

 ancient fraternity of porkers ; and think it " no free country where pigs 

 can't have their liberty." Newburgh is by no means a well-planned village, 

 though scarcely surpassed for scenery; but we believe it may claim the 

 credit of being the only one among all the towns, cities and villages of New- 

 York, where pigs and geese have not the freedom of the streets. 



