Such remark is not dropped invidiously, but as a reason why we have thus
far made so little progress in the arts of home embellishment, and in
clustering about our habitations those innumerable attractions which win
us to them sufficiently to repel the temptation so often presented to
our enterprise, our ambition, or love of gain--and these not always
successful--in seeking other and distant places of abode. If, then, this
tendency to change--a want of attachment to any one spot--is a reason
why we have been so indifferent to domestic architecture; and if the
study and practice of a better system of building tends to cultivate a
home feeling, why should it not be encouraged? Home attachment is a
virtue. Therefore let that virtue be cherished. And if any one study
tend to exalt our taste, and promote our enjoyment, let us cultivate
that study to the highest extent within our reach.
STYLE OF BUILDING.--MISCELLANEOUS.
Diversified as are the features of our country in climate, soil,
surface, and position, no one style of rural architecture is properly
adapted to the whole; and it is a gratifying incident to the indulgence
in a variety of taste, that we possess the opportunity which we desire
in its display to almost any extent in mode and effect. The Swiss chalet
may hang in the mountain pass; the pointed Gothic may shoot up among the
evergreens of the rugged hill-side; the Italian roof, with its
overlooking campanile, may command the wooded slope or the open plain;
or the quaint and shadowy style of the old English mansion, embosomed in
its vines and shrubbery, may nestle in the quiet, shaded valley, all
suited to their respective positions, and each in harmony with the
natural features by which it is surrounded. Nor does the effect which
such structures give to the landscape in an ornamental point of view,
require that they be more imposing in character than the necessities of
the occasion may demand. True economy demands a structure sufficiently
spacious to accommodate its occupants in the best manner, so far as
convenience and comfort are concerned in a dwelling; and its conformity
to just rules in architecture need not be additionally expensive or
troublesome. He who builds at all, if it be anything beyond a rude or
temporary shelter, may as easily and cheaply build in accordance with
correct rules of architecture, as against such rules; and it no more
requires an extravagance in cost or a wasteful occupation of room to
produce a given effect in a house suited to humble means, than in one of
profuse accommodation. Magnificence, or the attempt at magnificence in
building, is the great fault with Americans who aim to build out of the
common line; and the consequence of such attempt is too often a failure,
apparent, always, at a glance, and of course a perfect condemnation in
itself of the judgment as well as taste of him who undertakes it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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