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noises deafen the ear and drive reason from its seat.

And as if this were not enough, this doctrine gives birth to a class of politicians, who, incompetent to represent the reason of a country, strive to gain favor by feeding every wish of a people or a party, without regard to the highest good. This, if the scene were transferred to the breast of a single man, if in him the gratification of desire unregular ted by reason carried the day, we should call criminal and ruinous. What is there to alter its character, when it takes place throughout a country. The habit once begun, grows fast, and is not soon laid aside. Arbitrary will becomes every

thing; it absorbs all the juices, so to speak, of the political body, until reason and conscience are obliterated and disappear. A nation under such politicians resembles the geese of Strasburg, which are kept before a fire until their livers acquire an enormous size for the sake of the epicures of Paris. And to whose benefit does this turn? To that of the politicians. For, as they are well aware, a master-calling him. self a servant, perhaps-will become necessary to men who are guided by passion and ignorance, to men who think that the rule and end of government should be to have their wishes fulfilled, and not the true interests of the whole body promoted.

LANDSCAPE GARDENING AND RURAL ARCHITECTURE.*

MR. DOWNING has published two works of late, the titles of which may be found below, both of a character novel to the reading public. True our professional architects had books, full of designs, from those of Inigo Jones to that of Mr. Upjohn; and our head-mechanics have long been beholden to letter-press and printed diagrams for the perfecting of their homely 'elevations.' The reading world, however, save some few over-curious ones, seem to have regarded such works as the tools of the trade, with which they had little or nothing to do. But we have here, volumes bound for the library or the boudoir, teaching, in quite intelligi. ble terms, of mullions, and tracery, and peaked gables, and terraces, and fountains, &c. Not intended, either, is this last volume before us,

Downing's Landscape Gardening and Rural Architecture. New York, Wiley & Putnam, 1841.

Cottage Residences, adapted to North America. By A. T. Downing. New York, Wiley & Putnam, 1842.

as a closet counselor for contractors, but to render " in some degree conversant with domestic architec ture, every one who lives in the country, and in a country house." Quisque sui domi faber-every man his own carpenter, would seem to be its motto. But perhaps we wrong Mr. Downing in supposing that he would make his readers so far acquainted with architectural details as to supersede the necessity of employing an architect; since he has politely furnished in one of his closing pages a "general list of professional terms."

But if not to make his readers their own builders, why are they taught of the 'bracketted mode' and of pilasters,–that the minaret belongs to the Saracenic and the turret to the Tudor style? Mr. D. is ready with an answer: "He wishes to inspire in the minds of his readers and countrymen, more lively. perceptions of the BEAUTIFUL, in every thing that relates to their houses and grounds." He wishes

"to waken a quicker sense of the grace, the elegance, or the picturesqueness of fine forms that are capable of being produced in these by rural architecture and landscape gardening-a sense that will not only refine and elevate the mind, but pour into it new and infinite resources of delight."* Now we venture to say, that there are very many well-moneyed and well-mannered, and, as the world goes, well-read men, who would regard this inspiring of a taste for the beautiful,' as sheer nonsense; and would turn over Mr. D.'s smiling sketches with about the same notion of their elegance and propriety, that a Fi-ho-ti would have of the clumsy foot of a sturdy Dutch wench; in shortwould rise from Mr. D.'s last book with the established convictions, that the designs were very outlandish; that there was about them a great deal of unnecessary ornament; and that the estimates were each an enormity. They would meet our author's beautiful quotation-'true taste is an excellent economist,' with that matter-of-fact, tingling couplet of Pope's

"What bro't Sir Vito's ill-got wealth to waste? Some demon whisper'd-Vito, have a taste."

Of the beautiful, the mass of American landholders, or countryhouse owners, have exceedingly faint conceptions; and we fancy that it will require more than Mr. Downing's books, though the estimates in the latter were reduced by a third, to render those conceptions either vivid or definite. We do not say this in disparagement of our author's labors; they were needed, and tenfold more, could so many avail to make our country 'lovely.'t But he who would reform our domestic architecture, has to contend with deep-rooted prejudices in our countrymen, strong as their avarice, and extending through every year

Cottage Residences, p. 2, Preface. "To make our country loved, our country ought to be lovely."-Burke.

of their education. Beauty is an unmarketable commodity; if not contraband, certainly contra bonos mores. A man can not sell his Lombardy poplars, his mullioned windows, his umbrage, with his kitchen, and pantry, and garret. And how many among us build for any other earthly purpose but to sell? Did the owners of country houses build for themselves, the case would be different. Yet even then, how many country livers are willing to pay for beauty? On the contrary, do they not take special pains to eradicate every vestige of it in their neighborhood, and is it to be supposed that one book, or two, or three, should carry them from ex. treme to extreme? Such reformations come not in a flood.'

We speak now of those who derive their support from the cultiva tion of the soil, and deceive our selves as we will, with them lie the better features of the country, and with them rests ultimately the decision upon what shall be the char acter of our American landscape. It is not the wealthy, retired citizen here and there, or strown thickly along some rich interval of country, that are to make and measure into pleasure lawns each roadside view. Changes too are frequent, and stern, and strange; the wealthy manor of today, may be to-morrow divided into a dozen leased farms, belonging to as many hungry creditors. The Amer. ican farmer is the one to be reached by the reformer of our rural tastes, and he is not a man to be swayed by gilded cones, or ample margin, or posts set in mosaic; least of all by nicely contrived theories, or experience, on a scale altogether be yond his reach-gate-lodges, and vases, and Chinese temples. Indeed in this view of the subject, we must express a regret that Mr. D.'s works have been just such as they are; for in general, to the owner of a two hundred or three hundred acre farm, such directions as follow are

like the mechanism of Peter Stuyvesant's watch to the 'patcher of shoes.'

"These grand principles are of the very first importance in the suc cessful practice of this elegant art, (landscape gardening,) viz. 1. THE RECOGNITION OF ART, founded on the immutability of the true as well as the beautiful. 2. THE PRODUCTION OF A WHOLE, springing from the necessity in the mind of a unity of sensation. 3. THE IMITATION OF THE BEAUTY OF EXPRESSION, derived from a refined perception of the sentiment of nature. 4. THE PRODUCTION OF VARIETY, including under this term intricacy and harmony, founded on the ever active desire for new objects of interest."*

Upon the whole, we regard our author's efforts of more value in directing attention to the subject, than for any special instructions which they afford. For aside from the small landholder, there are but two classes to whom the precepts conveyed address themselves. The first are they, who by commercial vigilance or social connection have attained fortunes, which they desire to lavish in a show, that they have not the skill to design, or the taste to appreciate. Such leave the accomplishment of the task to the professional artist, and of course need no more the instructions of our author, than President Tyler needs to consult the pages of the Constitution while he has the services of its professed expounders. The other class consists of such as have husbanded their resources to gratify a genuine taste, cultivated by unwearied observation and study. Such have the precepts of Vitruvius and Cato, of Wren and Evelyn, of Knight and Price, at their entire command.

As we shall not again refer to the works before us, except by way of occasional illustration or commendation, we will sum up our no

Landscape Gardening, pp. 42, 43.

tice of them, by remarking that they are well written books, of easy and pleasant reading, and in a measure instructive, particularly the sections in the first upon trees, and the appended dissertation upon transplanting; that they are well printed, and the 'Cottage Residences' illustrated handsomely-the other quite exceptionably.

Beauty with many among us has become nearly a synonym for worthlessness. The beauty of sound, of sight, of taste, of smell, are together condemned as the objects of effeminacy. While the German has his fine-toned music, the Hollander his melody of bells and organs, the French his jet d'eau and parterre, the American from his birth enters into an open conflict with those offices of the system which supply such gratifications. He looks with an indifference amounting to contempt, upon him who courts the pleasure of either of the senses, by a more than instinctive indulgence. That great maxim of utility has so inwrought itself into the mind of the nation, that they see it only in its gross and palpable forms, overlooking those indirect methods by which it might minister to the soul and the sense. Indeed it would seem that the mass of landholders and commercial workers, had forgotten the intimacy of the mind with the body, in their life transactions; confining the accomplishment of that soul which is to be, to a few old books, and stale maxims, and frequently told prayers; never minding that it is a thing of finer tone and more lasting impressions than even a man's revenue. There are those who look upon it as a weakness, to yield their sterner judg ments up to a passing love of beautiful things, whether of art or the 'glory of a sunset sky.' As if it were not true that the instrument of vision, so admirably adapted to the acceptance of every material object, was only in harmony with its own

purposes when ministering to the innocent delights of that mind, which controls its motions. As if there was nothing in that first garden of Paradise, fraught with teachings to the whole race of man; that there is something godlike and ever to be striven for in beauty; and that if man can associate with his 'brow's sweat' somewhat of that elegance from which he was driven out, he restores himself, in so far, to the perfection of that physical condition in which he was formed to act. They are few who possess not some crude notion of what elegance of design is, and an inkling of that skill which gives birth to beauty; yet are the many dazzled by it, only as a babe by a gem. We have sometimes thought there was something in the peculiarity of our political condition indisposing to a correct taste in reference to the elegant

arts.

The shaven heads marked it in our fathers, when Cromwell wore his buff surtout in place of regal garb. And there are many now-adays, to whom beauty of art in all its forms, seems tainted with the miasma of kingly courts, and lordly bishoprics, and princely dukedoms. An elegant church is an object of fearful suspicion, for the Popes built St. Peter's; the adornment of a city, for Nero rebuilt Rome; painting, for tyrants have been its patrons; images, for Louis the Debonnair sanctioned their use. Yet are none more ready than these same iconoclasts to admire that beauty which reveals itself in a "sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs, and harping symphonies."

Perhaps we do not give full credit to the changes in reference to works of design, that are making their way silently in the land; certain it is, that with regard to public architecture, more especially church architecture, a great change has transpired. And though the pointed window is set in a chapel of Grecian outline, yet is such a blunder a step

towards taste-ignorance assigning the beauty; just as the shipwreck upon the coast of Bohemia enlisted all the sympathies of the reader, who knew not but Bohemia lay in the Pacific. The people are beginning to realize that some things in the structure of the Gothic ca thedral, may be introduced into a Protestant church, without impairing the efficacy of the word, or dimin ishing the awe at the Divine pres.

ence.

There is something in those dimly lighted, cavernous interiors, with their clustering columns, stretching on as in the vista of a dream, strangely awe-inspiring, and as it seems to us, disposing the mind of a Christian fitly for the worship of Him who is a spirit. Milton speaks of

"Storied windows richly dight,

Casting a dim, religious light."

And in the lines which follow, ob serve how keenly alive was the mind of that great man to the enchanting beauty of good music-often an exile from our churches

"There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full voiced quire below,
In service high, and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness, thro' mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies,

And bring all heaven before mine eyes."* Beauty is no foe to reverence-much less is sublimity. The religion of Christ is none the more honored, and none the more likely to prosper, for being forced into an unnatural alliance with deformity. The Ark of Israel would have borne in equal security the covenant of God, had it been a ruder casket; yet the angel of the Most High scrupled not to rest in guardianship upon its golden cherubs.

Our public buildings for civil purposes are perhaps assimilating more the richness of the European. A distinct style of architecture is look ed upon as a somewhat worthier object than a conglomerate of every

* Il Penseroso.

species. Observers are actually be coming acquainted with the massive entablature of the Doric, and a fillet of palm leaves can not longer be bound round the Corinthian shaft, nor the acanthus leaf be plaited up on the Egyptian column, with impunity. This is well. It is well for the individual enjoyment of taste; it is well for the architect, that he may possess, as he ought to do, the enlightened approbation of the public; it is well for the edifices, that they may be cherished with the more care, and regarded with feelings of a higher pride; and well too for the people, that they may have studies of grace.

We have a remark or two to make in this connection, upon the schoolroom, and, by way of episode, upon the school-book,-being, as they are, the first objects which are presented to the youthful mind, and such as in the majority of instances utterly confound every natural sentiment (if such there is) of beauty. The building is, in nine cases out of ten, an amorphous mass of lumber and plaster, where the boy is taught the rudiments of his tongue, from some elementary book which-whether orthodox or heterodox in its etymology, is yet, with its dim blurred printing, and uncouth binding, and thrice-worn cuts, an embodiment of ugliness; these mold his fancies, and elegance is for visionary boys to dream of. It is surprising that so little regard is paid at an age so young, to the awakening of a love for beauty, disposing as it does to order, and harmony, and regularity. And it is the more surprising, that the means of correct guidance are so obvious and accessible. The room itself, by its neatness of arrangement, and elegance of design, might impress an idea of order and fitness upon the growing mind, that would never leave it-and the child unconsciously learn a richer lesson from the inanimate objects around it, than from the labored admonitions

of a master. We rejoice to see that economy is finding its interests identical with a finished appearance; for youth will instinctively pay regard to whatever has put on a garb of beauty; and the neatly painted desk and porch will escape the unseemly cuts and bruises, which were so much in vogue in our boyish days. And with the Grecian front of the modern school-room, and the illus trated pages of the modern schoolbook, simple and unnoticed matters though they may have been, we date a new era in the education of Amer ican children. Such things, in our view, will do more to make our land the country of the cottage and the vine, than the fullest or most ingenious elucidation of the principles of rural arts, as taught by Price and Gilpin.

But not to lose sight of our subject, nothing will so encourage and give permanence to a love for beauty once awakened, as the arts treated of in Mr. Downing's books. Belles-lettres, painting, statuary, music, are totally out of the question, for refining the tastes of the multitude; and the reasons for this are too obvious to mention. But there are home associations connected with the adornment of country landscape and of country houses, which make it matter of interest to every one possessed of any tolerable apprecia tion of the beautiful. Nothing operates more strongly, as we have already intimated, against the prac tice of rural embellishments, than the restless inquietude of our landholding population; and nothing would so surely subdue this inquietude, as the successful practice of these same adornments. Again, the peculiar facilities afforded by the face of our country, will amply sustain an interest on this subject, once thoroughly awakened. The rich alluvial depositions along our larger streams, offering the finest soil in the world for the pursuits of agriculture and arboriculture,—the full

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