Architecture in the United States, 255 



he feels as we do in looking up a long straight road — it may be v^ery 

 convenient but we feel no disposition to pursue it further, though it 

 may be planted with elms and dressed with rich vines, and enlivened 

 with the sweet melody of birds : we are just as well off where we 

 are, why go further ? But give that road a turn near us, and our cu- 

 riosity is immediately excited to pursue it further. I recollect a 

 road not far from Wooster in Ohio. It ran, I think, six or seven 

 miles as straight as an arrow, and when I travelled on it, became at 

 last absolutely painful to me. I began to feel like a man in a strait 

 jacket, and perhaps the road contractors would have said I deserved 

 one. But to return to our rectangular city. Every one will recol- 

 lect his sensations, on turning from street to street, and finding the 

 same long vista before him. It may please for a few moments at 

 first, but the feelings soon grow dull and stagnate, and he turns list- 

 lessly away. Such a city has two important principles of beauty, 

 symmetry and neatness ; but, in a city at least, variety is essential to 

 beauty : this is uniform, and therefore soon becomes dull. We love 

 variety, and nature has provided largely for it : no two scenes are 

 alike, though rocks, hills, trees, valleys and streams may go to the com- 

 position of both. We should soon tire of nature if things were so, at 

 least if they were often so. At a first visit to a spot, it is the con- 

 stant succession of new views taking us by surprise and sharpening cu- 

 riosity, that delights us : afterwards it is this adaptation of forms to our 

 nature, this variety suited to our love of variety, that fixes itself so 

 strongly on our souls. Other principles of our nature, no doubt, are act- 

 ed on, but this is among the uppermost. Let us bring it to the test. 

 Suppose close together two beautiful scenes exactly alike in all parts : 

 they would excite our wonder, but apart from this, would there not be 

 a strong disappointment in our feelings ? Would not the one we saw 

 first, sink in our estimation because the other was just like it ? Let us 

 go further : suppose there were three such, we should wonder more 

 for a short while and then begin to be indifferent : four, we should 

 begin to tire : five, we should be weary : six, it would require an 

 effort to look at them, and we should then begin to dislike. I will 

 change the case. Let the reader suppose himself in a forest with a 

 handsome glade by his side : he turns and has one exactly like it by him 

 again : a few feet more and another comes ; and again another, and 

 so on without end. Those trees might be different in shape and in 

 their leaves, but if disposed, as was said, exactly alike in all cases, 

 would he seek that forest again for a pleasant walk ? Again, sup- 



