WHOEVER has sailed up the Hudson, in a clear day, may have observed, among other noble and beautiful sights that greeted him on the banks of that majestic river, the residence of the accomplished author of the volumes bearing the above-named titles. After leaving the wilder and bolder scenery of the highlands, at the opening where the hills begin to recede and stretch away with a somewhat more subdued sweep and even outline, he may have noticed at the left on the northern side of the village of Newburgh, a chaste and finished villa, in the Tudor gothic style, with growing trees surrounding it, marking the taste of an individual who has given a fine practical illustration, as well as an acceptable theory, of both Architecture and Gardening. Our country has not yet dedicated many temples to Beauty. We

do

not suppose that Mr. Downing would wish his quiet home to be regarded by the public as one of her shrines. But from his books we should believe him to be himself a sincere and enthusiastic lover of more than one of the "beautiful sisterhood" of the elegant arts; a willing and prompt encourager of whatever fosters and enlarges our æsthetic culture; a scholar of comprehensive views and a refined heart, and a hospitable gentleman of course. Such is the sort of person, we presume, that almost every reader of these works places before his mind and associates with the pages; and he is certainly an author of no ordinary good fortune who can convey through his writings so favorable and so true an impression of his qualities.

At any rate, in the department of toil and study which he has chosen and thoroughly given himself to, Mr. Down

ing stands, as an American, quite alone. It is, indeed, but a few years since he first made himself known in connection with the subject. The first edition of his "Landscape Gardening was published in 1841. And whatever degree of merit may attach to his efforts, that merit can yet be shared, so far as the community are aware, by no other of our countrymen. He has neither companion nor rival. The ground is all his own. For any appearance of a competitor hitherto to question his claims or dispute his positions, or supersede his labors, he may be as dictatorial and as despotic as he pleases. We regard this as a circumstance by no means to be rejoiced in, for the country's sake; we wish a multitude were reaching towards the same distinction when we take the general interest into consideration. And we cannot doubt that this Sir Joshua Reynolds of our rural decorations himself, if he might but advance the people at large to a deeper and more active interest in his favorite cause, would be ready to divide his empire and distribute the prerogatives of his sovereignty. Meantime, we will be grateful for what he has done. We will hope that he has communicated an impulse that shall not be soon spent; that he is kindling up an admiration for sylvan scenes and natural beauties that will not die till it has wrought out some worthy and durable results. And we will rejoice that a generous and liberal science has fallen, for its early advocacy, into the hands of no unscrupulous speculator on the one hand, or narrow-minded bigot on the other.

There are many things to be said, however,explanatory and vindicatory of what

ever apparent deficiency exists among our people in regard to matters of taste. In the first place, the indifference is not so remarkable as it has been; it is beginning to be broken up: it is yielding to a more genial influence. There never was a stubborn hostility to artistic pursuits here. They have been neglected rather. But the circumstances of the time did not favor a very thorough or assiduous application to them. Every age has its work; every period its pressing necessity; every era its own glory. We have never heard that a nation in the first half-century of its existence, engaged too in a sharp struggle for its liberties, nay for its life, has devoted itself much to laying out flower-gardens, trimming hedges, or transplanting shrubbery. Our fathers, grave and earnest men, have had solid tasks on their hands. If the founders of the Republic had been inclined to push their horticultural experiments to much extent, they must have turned up the soil with their bayonets, literally made their swords their ploughshares, and without any transformation of the article, used the spear for a pruning-hook. They were not wandering like Arcadian lovers in search of luxurious valleys bathed in a perfumed and dreamy air. Even that romantic and magnificent nature which the new world disclosed to their eyes hardly awakened a thought that could compare in majesty with the great thought of Freedom, Justice, Equality and Right which had taken firm possession of their souls. They did battle for the honest cause first; were loyal to the dictates of divine conscience; and is not that enough? Is it magnanimous in our transatlantic neighbors, especially for our brothers in England, to taunt the men they provoked with oppression and drove into hard necessities, with the reproach that they did not busy themselves with founding schools in the fine arts instead of thrusting back the arm of despotism? that they did not expend their energies in adorning Bunker Hill with comely terraces and covering it with parterres of roses, instead of shaping its summit into a rough redoubt and enriching it with heroes' blood?

But, what might have been foolish effeminacy or shameful unfaithfulness in the Puritans and first Republicans, is a very different thing to their posterity. The period of comparative poverty that

followed the Revolution, imposing the necessity of rigorous exertion and strict private economy, is giving place to an easy condition. Wealth has begun to heap up its revenues. and it is time to study a wise, rational expenditure of it. Men of leisure, opulence and education are multiplying; and it ought to be a serious inquiry how they shall devote their resources for the common benefit, in methods worthy the consideration of the age. The interests of even the subordinate departments of national endeavor demand consideration now. No nation can be said to have a harmonious and complete development or a true greatness, unless it has its Art. That element is essential. When it is wanting, something is wanting in the mind and heart of the people. If there is no constant ardor of devotion to the Beautiful; if no hands "build altars to the Sublime;" if there are no

-"longings to obey The haunting oracles that stir our clay, To make the unseen with actual glories rife And call the starred ideal into life;"

then the culture of that people has no founded and full perfection, its growth is not symmetrical, but onesided and partial.

And this has begun to be understood and felt, here as well as elsewhere. There has been, within a few years past, a perceptible awakening of interest in these subjects. The attention of large numbers of persons has been directed to rural improvements, as well, indeed, as to artistic studies in general. In the vicinity of nearly all our cities are to be found mansions and villa residences, surrounded by grounds whose arrangement gives ample evidence that while much has been done, much more is to be expected. If there is any doubt that a new 'regard for gardening is springing up and growing, a few moments' examination of the establishments of Messrs. Hovey & Co., of Boston, or of Thorburn, of N. Y., or of Sinclair & Co., of Baltimore, or of Landreth, of Philadelphia, or of Prince, of Flushing, or of the Horticultural Magazine, started ten years ago and still conducted by the former firm, will satisfy the most incredulous. Individuals of competence are breaking away from the old rules or no-rules respecting architecture, becoming independent of the wretched customs that have been

too prevalent, and asking for cultivated artists to design their buildings instead of ordinary carpenters; excellent and worthy men are carpenters, but justice to them does not require that they should be subjected to the mortification of a failure in attempting to do what they have not been educated to do. And justice to the interests of all requires that the higher processes of this, as of other intellectual vocations, should be assigned to a distinct and learned profession. The sort of structures that have been common-dull, inexpressive and heavy as they often are,-is to be exchanged for a positive and intelligent style. Convenience and elegance are about to be consulted, and not a senseless habit, nor a degenerate imitation of classic models. Kitchens, parlors and sleeping-rooms are not to be always thrown into the form of the Greek temple, nor domestic comfort sacrificed to the proportions of the Parthenon. Modifications of the Gothic and Italian, thanks to Mr. Downing and others such as he, are frequently tried already. To pretend that we love, or can love at present anything like a fixed, regular, original American style, would, of course, be preposterous.

A tendency to imitation-not merely a contemplation and study, for the discipline and expansion of the artist's faculty-but to imitation of the forms of antiquity, we regard, indeed, as the fault of all countries in this century, and not of ours alone. But long perseverance will bring such a style as we just spoke of, a style having reference to our climate, position and habits, and adapted in all respects to our needs. Human beings must have permanent habitations, from the burrowing Troglodyte to the luxurious millionaire, as long as their human hearts retain their social affections, and their physical constitution is unequal to the exposure of an unsheltered life, under the cold canopy of heaven. Then, every individual who erects an abode for himself or for another, should be conscious of his responsibility. He engages in a serious act. The consequences of what he does he ought not to regard as trifling or transient. They will remain after he has gone to a more silent mansion. Disease and mortality, inestimable misery may be entailed on a family, and on many families, by a careless builder. And harm no less real and lasting may be inflicted on the

taste of the community. Whoever orders and superintends the erection of a human home, places that upon the earth which must, in the ordinary course of things, stand there and speak and exert its share of influence, for good or for evil, in moulding the preferences and guiding the future methods of more than one generation. Whoever builds an illproportioned, unsightly house, insults the community, wrongs his neighbors, perhaps lowers the standard of taste and detracts from the common weal. We are indebted, then, deeply, to those who, by their writings or their example, stir up a spirit of investigation, elevate the tone of feeling, and honestly help on a better day.

Besides, our population exhibits every day a quicker apprehension and appreciation of the results of art. Painters, sculptors, architects and musicians, are characters that constantly become more significant among us, and more operative. A disposition for travel is spreading. All classes find a new joy in turning their backs on cities, the artificial usages that exert a tyrannical dominion there, the conventionalities and outside vanities that glitter and mislead and bewilder there. The cen-. tralization that goes on at the bidding of commerce and manufactures is felt to carry with it a dangerous trial for purity of heart. It is found a salutary thing that the pulse, heated and swollen in the ambitious strifes and competitions of masses, should be quieted by the cool breath of solitude. The ac-quaintance between men and nature promises to strengthen into an intimacy. Nature in her holy simplicity is revealing herself, with all her wonderful and enrapturing loveliness, to watch-ful eyes. She calls the children of the land to witness that she has finer sights to offer than dioramas and panoramas, feeble theatricals and vaulting buffoons. She would turn off their eyes from sunsets of machinery, lamp-light and screens, and lead their feet up her steep mountain-sides till they stand face to face before the august splendors of an autumnal nightfall. She would show them a pomp and pageantry around their daily walks more gorgeous than in all the costliness of St. Peter's. She would wean them from "the world's accursed sorcery," and lift up their hearts in loving worship to Him who made

to despair on metropolitan vices, and turn with hope to the healthful freedom and naturalness of the cultivators of the soil. They share in the emotion of that mightiest Reformer and holiest Preacher who wept over Jerusalem, and loved the silent haunts of Olivet and the secret seclusion of Bethany more than the thronged marts of the capital. They sympathize with the old pious pilgrims, who would make wearisome and circuitous deviations from their journeys, rather than encounter one of those populous centres-one of those "Vanity-Fairs," whose wickedness is so rife and so revolting. The truth is, we hold every author to be a public benefactor who promotes an inclination towards a practical devotion to agriculture. The experiments and publications of the gentleman referred to above, Mr. Colman, have no doubt been exceedingly useful in this regard, as well as in assisting and enlightening the profession itself. Hundreds of aspiring and well-meaning youths press into our large towns yearly, under the most erroneous impressions as to the facilities held out there for the accumulation of wealth; and they are obliged to go home again chagrined and disappointed; happy if they do not linger on with their moral discrimination weakened, their native affections wasted, their integrity sullied, their whole higher nature dragged down and trampled under foot; happy if they have not lost what they never can regain.

It needs still to be more thoroughly and generally comprehended, that the farmer's employment is no mean employment; that he has one of the grandest kinds of work given him, among human toils. If there is any man who stands, in the midst of his ordinary everrecurring tasks, close by the hidden springs and glowing mysteries of creation, it seems to be he. If there is any man who has opportunities to catch the meaning of the "open secret," it is he. His advantages for possessing himself of a solid understanding, a shrewd judgment, and a reverential posture of the soul, if he will only seek and appropriate them, are, in this land of diffused education, unequalled. The laws of God operate around him almost unperverted by the conflicting forces of the will of man. The bright arch of the skies bends over him, expanding the scope of his thoughts; the green and

fruitful earth whereon he labors is suggestive of continually enlarging discoveries and inventions; the growing plants that start up noiselessly at his invitation out of the earth's prolific lap, keep alive his unfailing wonder; and a thousand sweet and eloquent voices, sounds that the Creator inspires, utterances of the love that fills the heart of all things, whisper to him, rebuke his disobedience, and draw him to goodness. By him the wisdom that day uttereth to day and the knowledge that night showeth to night, is most plainly to be read and most easy of interpretation. Surely, the undevout tiller of the soil, having such access to communion in the presence-chamber of the Great Designer, no less than the undevout astronomer, is mad. Of course we do not intend reproach on the employments of other artizans, the tradesman and the mechanic. We have a faith that all earnest and upright labor is honorable and sacred, if not, with Carlyle and the monks (some monks), that "all work is worship." But we presume the tradesmen themselves will admit that their department is just now somewhat overcrowded; that it were better the rising strength of this age were diverted into some other direction; that, sublime as the achievements of commerce and mechanical agencies confessedly are, agriculture must remain the basis of our institutions; and that hitherto, in the common estimate of mankind, judging by their literature or their conduct, it has not held the elevated rank that belongs to it in a just scale of human dignities. And this is all we claim. Nay, a little more we claim: it has not been in Tyre and Carthage and such spots as they-the models of mercantile ambition-that divine thoughts have been born to quicken the mind of centuries, and trumpet-tones gone forth to rouse the world's slumbering powers, echoing and re-echoing through the farthest halls of Time.

Now agriculture and horticulture are kindred sciences, if indeed the former does not include the latter, as horticul ture includes arboriculture and floriculture. It is more convenient, perhaps, that the terms should be kept separate in their signification, and yet there is an intimate relationship between them. When Mr. Downing is advocating the aesthetic phase of horticulture, he is laboring in a field which is prepared for