Whatever may be the prospect for American architecture in the good time coming, there can be little doubt of the fact as it at present stands, that it is in many ways far from satisfactory. Over the length and breadth of this country are scattered cities and villages by thousands, and public and private edifices innumerable; and yet we may fairly say, there are the buildings, but where is the architecture! - there is the matter, but where is the manner ! - there is the opportunity, but where is the agreeable result! Is it in the churches ! A few really creditable specimens may be quickly pointed out, but who will deny that the vast majority are deficient in truthful dignity and artistic beauty ! Is it in the public buildings ! Several fine works of art at once occur to the mind - a floating doubt perhaps, somewhat questions the Ameri-icanism of their expression - but they are nobly conceived and do not shrink from the ordeal of the artist's pencil. It is granted that they are successful. Then comes the question of the vast majority again.

Does the memory linger with pleasure over the reminiscences of a provincial tour, and delight to recall the pleasant aspect of each town with its tasteful hall, school houses, library, theatre, museum, banks, courts, of justice, etc., cheerfully erected and gracefully arranged by its free and enlightened inhabitants - for their own use and pleasure of course - but with a wise regard for mutual advantage and individual enjoyment, that ensures the sympathy of every passing stranger, the more readily too, as each discovers that he, even he, has been thought of, and that some study has been expended to give him pleasure! No; this is not a result to be looked for at present Does the secret of beauty lie in the private buildings, the stores, the ware-houses, the mansions, the villas, the hotels, the streets, or the cottages! There are probably as magnificent hotels and stores in the large cities of America as any where in the world. Architecture, within the last ten years, has managed to get a genuine foothold in this department of building; it has begun to pay, and that is truly an excellent sign, and one that offers food for reflection and solid encouragement: yet it is the few and not the many even here that speak of refinement and a love of grace, which is as averse to meretricious display as it is to ungainly awkwardness.

Among the private residences a great number are excellent, but still the mass are unsatisfactory in form, proportion, color, and light and shade. What is the season of all this ! Why is there comparatively so little beauty in American buildings! Some will say America is a dollar-loving country, without taste for the arts. Others, that expense is the obstacle, and that the republican simplicity.

The latter of these solutions is dearly incorrect, for it is knowledge and not money that is the important source of any pleasurable emotion that may be caused by a building; indeed, a simple, well planned structure, costs less to execute for the accommodation obtained, than an ill planned one, and the fact of its being agreeable and effective or otherwise, does not depend on any ornament that may be superadded to the useful and necessary forms of which it is composed, but on the arrangement of those forms themselves, so that they may balance each other and suggest the pleasant idea of harmonious proportion, fitness, and agreeable variety to the eye, and through the eye to the mind. All this is simply a matter of study before building, not of additional cost in building.

The other solution of the problem, that Americans do not appreciate the beautiful, and do not care for it, or value it, is a more specious, but equally erroneous one. There are doubtless many obstructions that have hindered and do hinder the development of correct taste in the United States; but it is not that the spring is dry, but that these obstacles prevent its water from flowing freely: and yet there appears no real difficulty that earnestness and ordinary patience may not overcome. One important evidence of a genuine longing for the beautiful may be at once pointed out Almost every American has an equally unaffected though not of course an equally appreciative love for the country. This love appears intuitive, and the possibility of ease and a country place or suburban cottage, large or small, is a vision that gives a sest to the labors of industrious thousands. This one simple fact is of marked importance; it shows that there is an innate homage to the natural, in contradistinction to the artificial - a preference for the works of God to the works of man - and no matter what passing influences may prevent the perfect working of this tendency, there it exists, and with all its short-comings, is a valuable proof of inherent good, true, and healthy taste; moreover the greater includes the less - an actual love for nature, however crude it may be, speaks clearly of a possible love for art.

A reference to the early history of the country seems to show that the dominant spirit of Puritanism was ever in opposition to any advance in the fine arts, which were considered pomps and vanities, closely connected with superstition, popery, etc.,tocracy, etc., and eschewed accordingly. The result is not altogether undesirable, though it has appeared to retard the advance of refinement and civilization. The awakening spirit of republicanism refused to acknowledge the value of art as it then existed - a tender hot-house plant, ministering to the delights of a select few - the democratic element rebelled against this idea in toto, and tacitly but none the less practically demanded of art to thrive in the open air in all weathers, for the benefit of all if it was worth anything, and if not, to perish as a troublesome and useless incumbrance. This was a severe course to take, and the effects are everywhere felt; but after all it had truth on its side, and candor must allow that no local, partial class, recognizing advance in art, however individually valuable its examples might have been, could in reality have compensated for the disadvantages that would have attended it. Now every step in advance, slow though it be, is a real step taken by the whole country.