A LETTER FROM MISS BKEMER. Ixvil 



realms of life, belongs to the New World, the new home of 

 the people of peoples, and it was given through A. J. 

 Downing. 



I am not sure of being right in my observation, but it 

 seemed to me that in the course of no long time, the mind 

 of my friend had undergone a change in some views that to 

 me seem of importance. When I knew him at first he 

 seemed to me a little too exclusive, a little aristocratic, as 

 I even told him, and used to taunt him with, half in earn- 

 est, half in play — ahd we had about that theme some sMr- 

 mishings, just good to stir up a fresh breeze over the smooth 

 waters of daily life and intercourse. I thought that he 

 stiU wanted a baptizing of a more Christian, republican 

 spirit. Later I thought the baptizing had come, gerttle 

 and pure as heavenly dew. 



And before my leaving America I enjoyed to see the 

 soul of my friend rise, expand, and become inore and mbre 

 enlarged and universal. It could not be otherwise, a soul 

 so gifted must scatter its divine gifts as the sun its rays, 

 and the flower its seeds, ove| the whole land, for the whole 

 people, for one aid' for aU. The good and gifted man would 

 not, else be a true rBpubUcan. It was with heartfelt delight 

 that I, on my last visit to the home of my friend, did read 

 in the August number of the Horticulturist these words 

 in a leading article by him, on the New- York Park. 



" Social doubters^ who dntrench themselves in the cit- 

 adel c)f exclusiveness in republican America, mistake our 

 people and its destiny. If we would but have listened to 

 them, our magnificent river and lake steamers, those real 

 palaces of the million, would have no velvet couches, no 

 splendid mirrors, no luxurious caypets ; such costly and 

 rare appliances of civilization, they would have told us, 

 could only be rightly used by the privileged families of 



