226 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



be free to every American citizen, — the pursuit of 

 happiness. The humble old farmhouse is discarded, 

 and a smart, modern country-house put up. Walks 

 and roads are made and graveled; trees and hedges 

 are planted; the rustic old barn is rehabilitated; 

 and, after it is all fixed, the uneasy proprietor 

 stands off and looks, and calculates by how much 

 he has missed the picturesque, at which he aimed. 

 Our new houses undoubtedly have greater comforts 

 and conveniences than the old; and, if we could 

 keep our pride and vanity in abeyance and forget 

 that all the world is looking on, they might have 

 beauty also. 



The man that forgets himself, he is the man we 

 like; and the dwelling that forgets itself, in its pur- 

 pose to shelter and protect its inmates and make 

 them feel at home in it, is the dwelling that fills the 

 eye. When you see one of the great cathedrals, 

 you know that it was not pride that animated these 

 builders, but fear and worship; but when you see 

 the house of the rich farmer, or of the millionaire 

 from the city, you see the pride of money and the 

 insolence of social power. 



Machinery, I say, has taken away some of the 

 picturesque features of farm li^e. How much so- 

 ever we may admire machinery and the faculty of 

 mechanical invention, there is no machine like a 

 man; and the work done directly by his hands, the 

 things made or fashioned by them, have a virtue 

 and a quality that cannot be imparted by machin- 

 ery. The line of mowers in the meadows, with the 



