MORAL INTLUKNCE OF GOOD HOUSES. 211 



" TKere is a kind of symmetry in the thoughts, feelings, and efiEbrts 

 of the human mind. Its taste, intelligence, affections, and conduct, 

 are so intimately related, that no preconcertion can prevent them 

 from being mutually causes and effects. The first thing powerfully 

 operated upon, and, in its turn, proportionately operative, is the taste. 

 The pertieption of beauty and deformity, of refinement and gross- 

 ness, of decency and vulgarity, of propriety and indecorum, is the 

 first thing which influences man to attempt an escape from a grov- 

 elling,, brutish character ; a character in which morality is chilled, 

 or' aMsolutdy frozen. In most persons, this perception is awatened 

 by what may be called the exterior of society, particularly by the 

 mode of building. Uncouth, mean,, ragged, dirty' houses, constitut- 

 ing the body of any town, will regularly be accompanied by coarse, 

 grovelling maimers. The dress, the furniture, the mode of Jiving, 

 and the manners, will all correspond with the appearance of the 

 buildings, and will universally be, in every such case, of a vulgar 

 and. debased nature.' On the inhabitants of such a town, it will be 

 difficult, if not impossible, to work a conviction that intelligence is 

 either necessary or Useful. Generally, they will regard both learn- 

 ing and science only with contempt. Of morals, except in the 

 coarsest form, and that which has the least influence on the heart, 

 th'ey vriU scarcely have any apprehensions. The rights enforced by 

 municipal law, they maybe compelled to respect, and the corres- 

 ponding duties they may be necessitated t<) perform ; but the rights 

 and bWigations which lie beyond the reach of magistracy, in which 

 the chief duties of morality are found,' and from which the chief 

 enjoyments of society spring, wiE scarcely gain even their passing 

 notice. They may pay their debts, but they will neglect almost 

 every thing of value in the education of their children. 



" The very fact, that men see good houses built around them, 

 will, more than almost any thing else, awaken in them a sense of 

 superiority in those by whom such houses are inhabited.. The same 

 sense is derived, in the same manner, from handsome" dress, furni- 

 ture, and equipage. The sense of beauty is necessarily accompar 

 nied by a perception of the superiority which it possesses over de- , 

 fortuity ; and is instinctively felt to confer this superiority on those 

 who can call it their own, over those- who cannot. 



