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LESSON VII.-OF EXPRESSION IN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.

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1. In domestic architecture, though the range of expression may at first seem limited, it is not so in fact; for, when complete, it ought to be significant of the whole private life of man-his intelligence, his feelings, and his enjoyments.

2. If we pass an ill-proportioned dwelling, in which the walls and roof are built only to defend the inmates against cold and heat, the windows intended for nothing but to admit the light and exclude the air, the chimneys constructed only to carry off the smoke, the impression which that house makes upon us at a glance is that of mere utility.

3. If, on the other hand, the building is well proportioned; if there is a pleasing symmetry in its outward form; and, should it be large, if it display variety, harmony, and unity, we feel that it possesses much absolute beauty-the beauty of a fine form.

4. If, in addition to this, we observe that it has various marked features, indicating intelligent and cultivated life in its inhabitants; if it plainly shows, by its various apartments, that it is intended not only for the physical wants of man, but for his moral, social, and intellectual existence; if hospitality

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smiles in ample parlors; if home virtues dwell in cozy fireside family rooms; if the love of the beautiful is seen in picture or statue galleries, intellectuality in well-stocked libraries, and even a dignified love of leisure and repose in cool and spacious verandas1, we feel, at a glance, that here we have reached the highest beauty of which domestic architecture is capable-that of individual expression.

5. Hence every thing in architecture that can suggest or be made a symbol of social or domestic virtues, adds to its beauty and exalts its character. Every material object that becomes the type of the spiritual, moral, or intellectual nature of man, becomes at once beautiful, because it is suggestive of the beautiful in human nature.

6. We are bound to add here that, in all arts, other thoughts may be expressed besides those of beauty. Vices may be expressed in architecture as well as virtues; the worst part of our natures as well as the best. A house built only with a view to animal wants, eating and drinking, will express sensuality instead of hospitality. A residence marked by gaudy and garish apartments, intended only to dazzle and impress others with the wealth or importance of the proprietor, will express pride and vanity instead of a real love of what is beautiful for its own sake; and a dwelling in which a large and conspicuous part is kept for show, to delude others into the belief of dignity or grace on our part, while our actual life is one in mean apartments, expresses any thing but honest sincerity of character.

7. The different styles of domestic architecture, as the Roman, the Italian, the Swiss, the Venetian, the rural Gothic, are nothing more than expressions of national character, which have, through long use, become permanent. Thus the gay and sunny temperament of the south of Europe is well expressed in the light balconies,2 the grouped windows, the open arcades, and the statue and vase bordered terraces of the Venetian and Italian villas; the homely, yet strong and quaint character of the Swiss in their broad-roofed, half rude, and cu riously constructed cottages; the domestic virtues, the love of home, rural beauty and seclusion, can not possibly be better expressed than in the English cottage, with its many upwardpointing gables, its intricate tracery, its spacious bay-windows, and its walls covered with vines and flowering shrubs.

8. So far as an admiration of foreign style in architecture arises from the mere love of novelty, it is poor and contemptible; so far as it arises from an admiration of truthful beauty

of form or expression, it is noble and praiseworthy. A villa in the style of a Persian palace, with its Oriental domes and minarets, equally unmeaning and unsuited to our life or climate, is an example of the former; as an English cottage, with its beautiful home expression, and its thorough comfort and utility, evinced in steep roofs to shed the snow, and varied form to accommodate modern habits, is of the latter.

9. Domestic architecture should be less severe-less rigidly scientific than in public buildings; and it should exhibit more of the freedom and play of feeling of every-day life. A man may, in public halls, recite a poem in blank verse, or deliver a studied oration with the utmost propriety; but he would be justly the object of ridicule if at the fireside he talked about the weather, his family, or his friend in the same strain.

10. What familiar conversation, however tasteful and wellbred, is to public declamation, domestic is to civil or ecclesiastical architecture; and we have no more patience with those architects who give us copies of the Temple of Theseus, with its high, severe colonnades, for dwellings, than with a friend who should describe his wife and children to us in the lofty rhythm of Ossian. For this reason the Italian, Venetian, Swiss, rural Gothic, and our bracketed style, which are all modified and subdued forms of the Gothic and Greek styles, are the variations of those types most suitable for domestic architect

ure.

1 VE-RAN'-DA, an open portico.

2 BAL-CO-NY, a gallery on the outside of a house.

3 ÄR-CADE', a continuous arch or series of arches.

14 GA'-BLE, the triangular or sloping end of a house, called the gable-end.

5 MIN'-A-RET, a slender lofty turret on mosques, with a balcony from which the people are called to prayer.

LESSON VIII.—

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-THE POETRY OF COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE.

Adapted from LOUDON's Magazine.

THE Cottage homes of England!

By thousands on her plains,

They are smiling o'er the silvery brooks,
And round the hamlet fanes.

Through glowing orchards forth they peep,
Each from its nook of leaves,

And fearless there the lowly sleep,

As the bird beneath their eaves.-HEMANS.

2. Of all embellishments by which the efforts of man can enhance the beauty of natural scenery, those are the most effective which can give animation to the scene, while the spirit which they bestow is in unison with its general character. It is generally desirable to indicate the presence of ani

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mated existence in a scene of natural beauty, but only of such existence as shall be imbued with the spirit, and partake of the essence of the beauty, which without it would be dead. If our object, therefore, is to embellish a scene, the character of which is peaceful and unpretending, we must not erect a building which shall be expressive of the abode of wealth or pride.

3. However beautiful or imposing in itself, such an object immediately indicates the presence of a kind of existence unsuited to the scenery which it inhabits, and of a mind which, when it sought retirement, was unacquainted with its own ruling feelings, and which consequently excites no sympathy in ours; but if we erect a dwelling which may appear adapted to the wants, and sufficient for the comfort of a gentle heart and lowly mind, we have attained our object; we have bestowed animation, and we have not disturbed repose.

4. It is for this reason that the cottage is one of the embellishments of natural scenery which deserves attentive consideration. It is beautiful always and every where; and whether looking out of the woody dingle with its eyelike window, and sending up the motion of azure smoke between the silver trunks of aged trees, or grouped among the bright corn-fields of the fruitful plain, or forming gray clusters along the slope of the mountain side, the cottage always gives the idea of a thing to be beloved-a quiet, life-giving voice, that is as peaceful as silence itself.

5. The principal thing worthy of observation in a finished cottage is its all-pervading neatness, and the expression of tranquil repose. The swallow or the martin is permitted to attach his humble domicile, in undisturbed security, to the eaves; but he may be considered as enhancing the effect of

the cottage by increasing its usefulness, and making it contribute to the comfort of more beings than one. The whitewash is stainless, and its rough surface catches a side light as brightly as a front one; the luxuriant rose is trained gracefully over the window; and the gleaming lattice, divided, not into heavy squares, but into small-pointed diamonds, is thrown half open, as is just discovered among the leaves of the green sweet brier, to admit the breeze, that, as it passes over the flowers, becomes full of their fragrance.

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6. The bright wooden porch breaks the flat of the cottage face by its projection, and branches of the wandering honeysuckle spread over its low hatch. A few feet of garden, and a latched wicket, inviting the weary and dusty pedestrian to lean upon it for an instant, and request a drink of water or milk, complete a picture which, if it be far enough from the city to be unspoiled by town sophistications, is a very perfect thing in its way. The ideas it awakens are agreeable, and the architecture is all that we want in such a situation. It is pretty and appropriate; and, if it boasted of any other perfection, it would be at the expense of its propriety.

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LESSON IX.-THE SHEPHERD'S COTTAGE.

WHERE Woods of ash, and beech,

And partial copses fringe the green hill foot,

The upland shepherd rears his modest home;
There wanders by a little nameless stream

That from the hill wells forth, bright now and clear,
Or after rain with chalky mixture gray,

But still refreshing in its shallow course
The cottage garden-most for use designed,
Yet not of beauty destitute. The vine
Mantles the little casement; yet the brier
Drops fragrant dew among the July flowers;

And pansies ray'd, and freak'd' and mottled pinks,
Grow among balm, and rosemary, and rue;
There honeysuckles flaunt, and roses blow
Almost uncultured: some with dark green leaves
Contrast their flowers of pure unsullied white;
Others like velvet robes of regal state

Of richest crimson; while, in thorny moss
Enshrined and cradled, the most lovely wear
The hues of youthful beauty's glowing cheek.

2. With fond regret I recollect, e'en now,
In spring and summer what delight I felt
Among these cottage gardens, and how much
Such artless nosegays, knotted with a rush
By village housewife or her ruddy maid,

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