G52 TRANSACTIONS OP THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



beauty is evidently becoming' move and more a popular study with us, and 

 the taste for landscape-gardening is making more general advances iu 

 America than any other art except music, which goes so well along with 

 it and seems to call for it as the song of the bird calls for the grove and 

 the flowers, "whose breath," says Lord Bacon, "is far sweeter in the air 

 (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand." 



The beautiful arts are brought before us by this illustration in their two 

 classes — the arts of the hand, that appeal to the eye, and the arts of the 

 voice, that appeal to the ear. Now surely the garden is the atelier for both. 

 classes of arts, and on the one hand invites architecture, sculpture, and 

 painting, and on the other hand rewards music, poetry, the drama and elo- 

 quence. We must have some kind of building there, and any man of the 

 least taste can play the architect upon some rustic bower, even if he has too 

 much good sense or modesty to venture upon planning his own house or stable 

 or conservatory. One may be well amused at the effect that may be pro- 

 duced by a little money, where there is plenty of rustic timber. I built 

 two rough arbors several years ago, which cost but twenty and thirty dol- 

 lars, and now that the vines have covered thgm they have risen into 

 romantic beauty, and no costly summer-house of the old, artificial pattern 

 can compare with them for a moment. My favorite retreat in the heat of 

 the summer days is the least costly of the two; and the pomp of million- 

 aires seems ridiculous when I sit with some noble book in hand under the 

 shelter of my twent3^-dollar study, with stately oaks and walnuts around, 

 with chirping birds and chattering squirrels, keeping company with the 

 ceaseless murmur and rustle of their leaves. Last year I tried my hand at 

 a statelier structure, under the spur of a generous gift, and with the help 

 of a young student of architecture, who is now winning honors in the great 

 school of architects in Paris. His drawing was charming, but the thing 

 itself is more so ; and the rustic tower with five pointed arches, on its 

 stately rock foundation, is a picturesque feature of the whole neighbor- 

 hood, and is intended to bear aloft our sacred flag with the holy symbol of 

 our faith. The cost was only about two hundred dollars at the worst of 

 all seasons for building, and in common times it might have been built for 

 little more than half that sum. Who will laugh at me for erecting three 

 handsome buildings for two hundred and fifty dollars ? Let him laugh who 

 wins. I am willing to be laughed at by any body who will get more 

 beauty and enjoyment for less money. Our acres are enriched for our life- 

 time, and our summers are idealized for a sum of money which might be 

 easily spent upon a ball-dress or a dinner. 



Sculpture as well as architecture belongs to the garden. It is well to 

 have means to set up fountains, vases and statues, for these do much to 

 fill out and integrate the landscape. But little wealth is needed to bring 

 the sculptor's eye, for mass and form and light and shade, to bear upon the 

 prospect. Every grove and clump of trees or shrubs is a study in form 

 and grouping. Swedenborg says that trees represent men; and whether 

 he. is right or not, we know that the finest statuesque effects may be pro- 

 duced by due selection and massing of trees and shrubs, so as fitly to com- 

 bine and contrast the drooping willow or elm with the spire-like fir or 

 hemlock, or the rounding maple or oak. At night the eye, in some respects, 



