The Central Park is an anomaly to those who have not deeply studied the tendencies of popular governments. It is a royal work, undertaken and achieved by the Democracy,--surprising equally themselves and their skeptical friends at home and abroad,--and developing, both in its creation and growth, in its use and application, new and almost incredible tastes, aptitudes, capacities, and powers in the people themselves. That the people should be capable of the magnanimity of laying down their authority, when necessary to concentrate it in the hands of energetic and responsible trustees requiring large powers,--that they should be willing to tax themselves heavily for the benefit of future generations,--that they should be wise enough to distrust their own judgment and defer modestly to the counsels of experts,--that they should be in favor of the most solid and substantial work,--that they should be willing to have the better half of their money under ground and out of sight, invested in drains and foundations of roads,--that they should acquiesce cheerfully in all the restrictions necessary to the achievement of the work, while admitted freely to the use and enjoyment of its inchoate processes,--that their conduct and manners should prove so unexceptionable,--their disposition to trespass upon strict rules so small,--their use and improvement of the work so free, so easy, and so immediately justificatory of all the cost of so generous and grand an enterprise: these things throw light and cheer upon the prospects of popular institutions, at a period when they are seriously clouded from other quarters.