Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/450

Rh literary activity seems now to take. I have sometimes, half in earnest and half in jest, reproached Downing with being more exclusive and aristocratic in his beautifying activity than became an honest, downright republican, and we have had, in consequence, various friendly little quarrels. It is very easy to see from Downing' s naturally refined manner, that it must be difficult for him to reconcile himself to a certain rudeness and unmannerliness which must exist among a people, where all possess equal rights, and regard themselves as equally good, even before all have attained to that outward and inward degree of cultivation which can make equality natural, and the life of equality agreeable. He seemed to me as if, in his feelings towards this class of people, he stood at too great a distance, was too indifferent. But so he ought not to be, it appeared to me, as a Christian republican. It is, therefore, with heartfelt joy that I have now read a leading article from his pen on the New York Park, in the last number of his monthly journal, “the Horticulturist,” in which he takes a far higher stand than that which he was formerly accustomed to do.

You my Agatha must also read with me a few words of this, because they deserve to be read, and they will be the last which I shall quote from the New World.

I will let Downing speak.

“We have said nothing of the social influence of such a great park in New York. But this is really the most interesting phase of the whole matter. It is a fact, not a little remarkable, that ultra-democratic as are the political tendencies of America, its most intelligent social tendencies are almost wholly in a contrary direction. And among the topics discussed by the advocates and opponents of the new park, none seem so poorly understood as the social aspect of the thing. It is, indeed, both curious and