230 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



ready to gite ihem etety thing needfiil, to impart a cheerful, taste- 

 ful, and inviting aspect to their homes ; but simply from^ a poverty 

 of ideas, and a dormant sense of the enjoyment to be derived from 

 orderly, tasteful, and agreeable dwellings and streets;- do these villa- 

 ges merit the condemnation of all men of taste and right feeling. 



The first duty of an inhabitant of forlorn neighborhoods, like 



the village of , is to use all possible influenqe to have the 



streets planted with trees. To plant trees, costs' little trouble or ex- 

 pense to each property holder ; and once planted, there is some as- 

 surance that, with the aid of 'time and nature, we can at least cast 

 a graceful veil over the deformity of, a country home, if we cannot 

 wholly remodel its features. Indeed, a village whose streets are bare 

 of trees, ought to be looked upon as in a condition not less pitiable 

 tlian a community without a schoolmaster, oria teacher of religion; 

 for certain it is, when the affections are so dull,- and the domestic 

 virtues so blunt that men do not care how their own homes and vil- 

 lages look, they care very little for fulfilling any moral obligations 

 not made compulsory by the strong arm of the law ; while, on' the 

 other hand, show us a Massachusetts village, adorned by its avenues 

 of elms, and made tasteful by the affection of its inhabitants, and 

 you also place before us the fact, that it is there where order, good 

 character, and virtuous deportment most of all adorn the lives and 

 daily conduct of its people. ' ■ 



Our correspondents who, like the one just quoted; ai'e apostles 

 of taste, must not be discouraged by lukewarmness and- opposition 

 on the part of the inhabitants of these graceless villages. They 

 must expect sneers and derision from the ignorant and prejudiced; 

 for, strange to say, pdor human nature does not love to be shown 

 that it is ignorant and prejudiced ; and men who.would think a cow- 

 shed good enough to live in, if only their wants were concerned, 

 take pleasure in pronouncing eveiy man a visionary whose, ideas 

 nse above the level of their own accustomed vision. But, as an off- 

 Set to this, it should'always be remembered that there are two great 

 principles at" the bottom' of our national character, which the apostle 

 of taste in the most benighted, graceless village, may safely 

 count upon. One of these is the prindph of irrtitation, which will 

 never allow a Yankee to be outdone by his neighbors ; and the 



