e. Munich, on the Isar, is
every day drifting into the beautiful, not to say aesthetical.

Pekin is a city sui generis, with its Kin-Ching, or prohibited city,
sacred to royalty; its Hwang-Ching, or imperial city, exclusively for
court officials; its Tartar division and Chinese division, all completed
according to the grand khan and Confucius. Happy Celestials! There is
nothing more to be done, nothing to reconstruct, nothing to improve; it
stands alone, the only city in all the world that is absolutely finished
and perfect. But of a truth our public works sink into insignificance
beside those of the ancient barbarians, the great wall and canal of
China, the pyramids of Egypt, and the brilliant cities of Assyria and
Palmyra.

The cities of Australia--Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide--in common with all
those of the British colonies, are laid out along liberal lines, with
broad streets, parks, public squares, and beautiful modern buildings,
requiring little change for many years to come. The English part of
Calcutta is a city of palaces, built from the spoils of subjugation.
Yokohama was a small fishing station when Commodore Perry called there
in 1854.

In the New World as in the Old, from John Cotton to Joseph Smith,
religion with cupidity inspires. One William Blaxton in 1630 lived where
Boston now is, and invited thither Winthrop and his colonists. When
banished from Massachusetts, Roger Williams stepped ashore on the bank
of the Seekonk, on a rock where is now Providence. The French built a
fort where Marquette camped in 1673, and there is now Chicago. Buffalo
was a military post in 1812. St. Paul was an Indian trading station
prior to 1838. The building of Fort Washington was followed by settlers
and Cincinnati was begun. Henry Hudson touched at Manhattan island in
1609, and the Dutch following, New York was the result. Brigham Young,
journeying westward, came to the Great Salt Lake, where, as he told his
followers, he was instructed by divine revelation to plant the City of
the Saints. It proved more permanent than might have been expected, as
zion--cities usually are quite ephemeral affairs.

Boston, the beneficial, swept by fires, smallpox, witchcraft, quakerism,
snowstorms, earthquakes, and proslavery riots, still lives to meditate
upon her own superiority and to instruct mankind. Much attention has
been given of late in Boston and suburban towns to artistic effect
in street architecture. Until recently New York