No. 216.] 315 



CONSTRUCTION OF FARM COTTAGES. 



BV D. J. BROWNE. 



It has been justly remarked, that, a traveller, in passing through 

 a strange, but civilized country, might form a correct judgment res- 

 pecting the social condition of its rural inhabitants by observing at- 

 tentively the state, character, and general appearance of their dwell- 

 ings; and that, a clean, fresh, and well-ordered house exercises over 

 its inmates a moral no less than a physical influence, and has a di- 

 rect tendency to make the members of the family sober, peaceable, 

 and considerate of the feelings and happiness of each other. Nor is 

 it difficult to trace a connection between habitual feelings of this 

 sort, and the formation of habits of respect for propriety, for laws 

 in general, and even for those higher duties and obligations, the ob- 

 servance of which no laws can enforce; whereas, a filthy, squalid, 

 unwholesome dwelling, in which none of the decencies common to 

 society, even in the lowest state of civilization, are known to exist, 

 tends directly to make every dweller in such a hovel, regardless of 

 the feelings and happiness of each other, selfish, and sensual; and 

 the connexion is obvious between the constant indulgence of appe- 

 tites and passions of this class, and the formation of habits of idle- 

 ness, dishonesty, and even of crimes ot higher degrees. 



Thus, in travelling over the wide domain of the inhabited parl'^ 

 of the United States, one can judge, in a measure, of the character 

 of the people by what is written in the expression of their dwell" 

 ings. On leaving any of the Atlantic cities and progressing inland? 

 he first passes through the motley and sometimes squalid suburbs, 

 which chiefly owe their existence to the late unparalleled prosperity 

 of commerce, the progress of manufactures, and their two indispen- 

 sable comcomitants — internal improvements and foreign immigra- 

 tion. Here, we may see cottages of every grade, color, and finishj 

 which fancy, caprice, or carelessness might devise, with now and 

 then, at the interval of a few miles, a stately mansion, in imitation 

 of some purse-proud lord; or, on the brow of yon eminence there 

 may be seen a castle-like structure 



" Embosomed high in tufted trees," 



