OUR COUNTRY VILLAGES. 243 



making every man see what a great moral and intellectual good 

 comes from cheerfully bearing a part is the burden of popular edu- 

 cation. Let us next taie up popular refinement in the arts, manners, 

 social Ufe, and innocent enjoyments, and we shall see what a virtuous 

 aid educated republic can really become. 



Besides this, it is the proper duty of the state — ^that is, the people 

 — to do in this way what the reigning power does in a monarchy. 

 If the kings and princes in Germany, and the sovereign of Engfend, 

 have niade' magnificent parks and pleasure-gardens, and thrown 

 them wide open for the enjoyment of all classes of the people (the 

 latter, after .all, having to pay, for it), may it not be that our sover- 

 eign people will (far more cheaply, as they may) make and support 

 these great and healthy sources of pleasure and refiiiement for 

 themselves in America ? We believe so ; and we confidently wait 

 for the time when public parks, public gardens, public galleries, and 

 tasteful villages, shall be among the peculiar features of our happy 

 republic. 



