Architecture in the United States, 251 



levelled, often at considerable expense. This is perfectly natural. 

 On meeting with a level tract of country near a handsome stream, 

 our first exclamation is apt to be, " what a beautiful spot for a town ;" 

 and in selecting ground to be passed over frequently, — perhaps in 

 after ages to be constantly traversed by dense crowds, it seems proper 

 that the most level should be selected. But natural as such a choice 

 may seem, still it is not wise. A city on level ground can never be a 

 cleanly one. Extreme rauddiness may be avoided by paving, and 

 extreme filth by frequent application of the scavenger's broom ; after 

 all this expense, however, such a place will be filled with offens- 

 ive sights and smells. The offals of shops and kitchens will still 

 accumulate : stables will still send up their noisome effluvia, and mire 

 will still every where abound. There is no sweeping so good, while 

 there is none half so cheap, as that which we may receive from a 

 smart shower of rain. Such a cleansing however is impossible in a 

 level town. The waters, instead of forming themselves into rapid 

 and healthy streams, here flood the street, or gather into pools, which 

 send us in long circuits by day, and deceive our eyes by night : col- 

 lecting the essence of every putrifying substance by our very door, 

 they change from black to yellow, and from yellow to green, while 

 from day to day they load the air with loathsome smeUs and sicken- 

 ing vapors. From this there is no escape, and in our changeful cli- 

 mate it is frequent. Every one of our level cities will satisfy us that 

 this is no caricature ; and if such is the case now, what wiU it be 

 when the population becomes far denser, and poorer also, and there- 

 fore less able to consult cleanliness or comfort than it is now ? 



Such a city can never be a handsome one. We may enrich it 

 with marble palaces, and deck them with ivory and gold, stiU it will 

 be heavy and gloomy and dufl. Every one has read of Babylon, 

 the city of sixty miles in circuit, and one hundred brazen gates. It 

 was the perfection of cities, if we make evenness of ground the 

 standard ; yet who that thinks of it, stretching league after league 

 over the same unvaried plain, does not immediately tire of its uni- 

 formity. We turn from street to street, but the same dead level is 

 before us. We look to the right and left, but the same prospect 

 opens on either side ; our feelings become stagnant, and we can con- 

 sent to live there only by consenting to become as dull as it. 

 Such is a level city. Let us now take a view of Rome. The 

 simple word, " in Capitolium ascendit" conveys to my mind, 



