210 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. ' 



literature and the arts flourish. > Aloflg with great orators and in-, 

 spired poets, come fine architecture, and tasteful grounds and gardens. 

 ' Let us congratulate ourselves that the new era is fairly com- 

 menced in the United States. We by no means wish to be imder-. 

 stood, that all our citizens have fairly passed the barrier thajt separates 

 utter indifference, or peurile fancy, from good taste. There are, and 

 will be, for a long time, a large proportion of houses built without, 

 any definite principles of construction, except those of the most 

 ■downright necessity. But, on the other hand, we are glad to per- 

 ceive a very considerable sprinlding over the whole country— from 

 the Mississippi to the Kennebec-^of houses built in such a manner, 

 as to prove at first glance, that the ideal of their owners hfis rigeh 

 .above the platform of mere animal wants: that they perceive the 

 intellectual superiority of a beautiful design over a meaningless and 

 uncouth form ; and that a house is to them ijio longer a comfortable, 

 ishelter merely, but; an expression of the intelligent life of man, in a 

 state of society where the soul, the intellect, and the heart,, are all 

 awake, and all educated. * 



There are, perhaps, few persons who have examined fully thft 

 effects of a general diffusion of good taste, of well J)eiug, and, a, love 

 of order and proportion, upon the community at large. There are, 

 no doubt, some who look upon fine houses as fostering the pride of 

 the few, and the envy and discontent of -the many; and — in some 

 ■transatlantic countries, wh4re wealth and its avenues are closed to a)l, 

 ■but a few — not without reason. But, in this country, where, integ- 

 rity and industry are almost always rewarded by more than the 

 means of subsistence, we have firm faith ifl, the moral effects of the 

 fine arts. We believe in the bettering infinence of beautiful cottages 

 ,and country houses-^in the improvement of human, nature necessa- 

 idly resulting to all classeH, from the, possession of lovely gardens 

 and fruitful orchards. 



We do not know how we , can present any argument of this 

 matter, if it^requires one, so good as one of that long-ago distin- 

 guished man — ^Dr. D wight. He is describing, in his Travels in 

 America, the influence of good architecture, as evinced in its effects 

 on the manners and character of the inhabitants in a town in New 

 England : 



