humanity, — that of the abolition of all castes, and the re- 

 cognition of the divine rights of every hjiman soul." On 

 that May morning, in the library, I remember the conver- 

 sation, drifting from subject to subject, touched an essay 

 upon "Manners," by Mr. Emerson, then recently pub- 

 lished'; and in' the few words that Mr. Downing, said, lay 

 the germ of what I gradually discoveifid to be his feeling 

 upon; the subject. This hauteur wa-s always evident in his 

 pergonal intercourse. In his dealings with .workmen, with 

 publishers, with men of affairs of all, kinds, the same feel- 

 ing, which .they called "stiffness,"' coldness," "pride/' 

 "haughtiness," ot "r^erve," revealed itself ThatN first 

 morning it only heightened' in niy mind the Spanish im- 

 pression of the dark, slim, mail, who. so courteously wel- 

 comed us at his door. . . ' 



.It was May, and the magnolias were in blossom, Un- < 

 der, our host's guidance, we strolled aboilt his grounds, 

 which, although they comprised but, some five acres, wei^e 

 laid out in a large style, that greatly enhanced their appar- 

 ent extent. . The town lay ait. the bottom of the hill, be-' 

 twe,en the garden and the water, and there was a road just 

 at the foot of the garden.' But so skilfully were the ■ trees 

 arranged, that all suspicion of town or road was removed. 

 Lying upon the lawn, standing in the door, or Mtting under 

 the light piazza before th& parlor windows, the enchanted 

 visitor saw only the garden ending in the thicket, which was 

 so dexterously trimmed as to reveal the loveliest gliinpses of . 

 the river, each a picture, in its frame'of foliage, but which 

 was not cut low enough to betra,y the presence of road or 

 ; town. You fancied the estate extended to the river ; yes, 

 and probably owned, the river as an ornament, and in- 

 cluded, the mountains/beyond. , Atjleaft^ you felt that 

 here was a, man who knew tbat the best part of the land- 



