f the Swiss mountains, or the combination of loveliness
and magnificence around the lake of Geneva."

"But Niagara!"

"Aye, Niagara! unequalled and alone. There can be but one Niagara."

"And the Alleghany and White Mountains?"

"Fine scenery, but hills in comparison with the mountains of
Switzerland."

"And now for the works of man. You must have been struck by the
contrast between the towns in our own country and in Europe."

"Yes, certainly, the difference is great."

"In what does it consist?"

"Principally in the newness of the one, and the oldness of the other.
There, what one sees reminds him of the past; here, he beholds only
presentiments of the future."

"There is a great difference, I am told, and read too, in the style of
building."

"You may well say that. Here there is no style. Our houses are models
of bad taste, and pretty much all alike. The time will undoubtedly
come when we shall have a domestic architecture, but it will require
some years before we get rid of narrow cornices, innumerable small
windows, and exclusive white paint."

"You should make allowances for us," said Armstrong, deprecatingly.
"Consider the poverty of a new country, and the material that poverty
compels us to use."

"I am willing to allow the excuse all the weight it deserves, but I
cannot understand how poverty can be an excuse for bad taste, or why
because wood is used, a house may not be made to have an attractive
appearance. I think there are other reasons more efficacious than the
plea of poverty, which can, indeed, no longer be made."

"Come, come," said Armstrong, "you do not love anything about us
Puritans, and your objections, if politeness would allow you to
speak them out plainly, would be found to contain a fling at Calvin's
children; but hearken, if I cannot find excuses to satisfy even you."

"I shall listen eagerly, but must correct you in one thing. I not only
love some things about the Puritans, but some Puritans themselves."

"Surely, I know it. But now listen to my defence. The first settlement
of the country was attended with a great many hardships. The country
was colder than the immigrants were accustomed to; they arrived in the
winter, and the first thing to be attended to was to secure shelter.
Under these circumstances you will admit that attention to the
principles of architecture was not to be expected. They knocked up
houses as cheaply, and plainly, and rapidly as possible, content i