UURAL ARCHITECTURE. 337 



even were it in this single point alone, the Italian style h 

 superior to the Grecian for rural residences. 



Pleasing associations are connected with Roman and 

 Italian architecture, especially to those who have studied 

 their effect in all the richness and beauty with which they 

 are invested in the countries where they originated ; and 

 they may be regarded with a degree of classic interest by 

 every cultivated mind. The modern Italian style recalls 

 images of that land of painters and of the fine arts, where 

 the imagination, the fancy, and taste, still revel in a world 

 of beauty and grace. The great number of elegant forms 

 which have grown out of this long cultivated feeling for 

 the beautiful in the fine arts, — ^in the shape of fine vases, 

 statues, and other ornaments, which harmonize with, and 

 are so well adapted to enrich, this style of architecture! — 

 combine to render it in the fine terraced gardens of 

 Florence and other parts of Italy, one of the richest and 

 most attractive styles in existence. Indeed we can hardly 

 imagine a mode of building, which in the hands of a man 

 of wealth and taste, may, in this country, be made pro- 

 ductive of more beauty, convenience, and luxury, than 

 the modern Italian style ; so well suited to both our hot 

 summers and cold winters, and which is so easily suscep- 

 tible of enrichment and decoration, while it is at the same 

 time so well adapted to the material in the most common 

 use at present in most parts of the country, — wood. 

 Vases, and other beautiful architectural ornaments, may 

 now be procured in our cities, or imported direct from 

 the Mediterranean, finely cut in Maltese stone, at very 



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