When we look at the ruins of old Rome, we say, what a great people! what temples! what mighty works I And undoubtedly Rome was truly great in individuals - very great in a strong and clever minority, who spent with marked ability the money and labor of the weak and ignorant majority; but the plebes - the unlettered, unthought-of common people, the million - were not great, nor were they taught to be so, and therefore Rome fell.

During the last hundred years there has been a continuous effort to give to the American million the rudiments of self-reliant greatness, to abolish class legislation, and to sink the importance of individuals. "Aut America aut nullus" - America or no one, - has been, is, and will probably ever be the practical motto. It is not surprising, then, that the advancement in the arts has been somewhat less rapid than the progress in commercial prosperity and political importance. The conditions were new, and it must be confessed rather hard. Continuous ease and leisure readily welcome art, while constant action and industry require time to become acquainted with its merits. To the former it may be a parasite and yet be supported, to the latter it must be a friend or nothing. The great bulk of the money that is laid out on building in the United States comes from the million, and is spent for and by the million. The result is therefore the taste of the million. The question then occurs, how is this universal taste to be improved ! There is the sound, healthy material, unprejudiced, open to conviction, with a real, though not thoroughly understood desire for what is good and true; there is plenty of prosperity and opportunity; plenty of money and industry; plenty of everything but education and the diffusion of knowledge.

This language may seem inapplicable to America to whom humanity is indebted for the successful introduction of the common school system, which lies at the root of every healthy idea of reform now at work in the world, but is nevertheless true. The genius of American art may with justice say of the genius of American education -

" If she he not fair to me,

What care I how fair she be.

Education must be liberal and comprehensive as well as universal and cheap, or the result will remain incomplete. In the matter of architecture, to secure anything permanently satisfactory there are necessary professors of ability, workmen of ability, and an appreciative able public. It would seem that architects in America are not at present, in the majority of cases, born and bred Americans; they have consequently serious difficulties to contend against They have to learn much and to unlearn much more, ere the spirit instilled into their designs can be truly and genuinely American. There is no good reason now why this state of affairs should continue. Architecture is a profession likely to be in considerable demand in the United States for several hundred years at least, and the demand is steadily increasing. Why then should not parents speculate for their sons in this line ! Why should not the article, as it is for home consumption, be raised at home ? It is an honorable calling,. not certainly offering such splendid fortunes as the merchant may realize, but it is a fair opening, and the only capital that it requires beyond brains and industry, is the expense for books and an education.

When a fair share of young America enters upon this study heart and soul, as a means of earning an independent position, we may expect a rapid natural development of the architectural resources of the country, and the present meagre facilities for artistic education must be gradually increased, and the schools and colleges will probably after a time be induced to include in their course of study, subjects calculated to discover and foster in the rising generation such natural gifts as have a bearing on these matters.

To ensure workmen of ability, a reasonable chance to improve is alone wanted. So long as the general demand is for monotonous, common-place, stereotyped work, the average of ability will necessarily be low; but with opportunity - good, cheap, illustrated standard works, and a spirited weekly paper devoted to the special discussion of the subjects interesting to architects, engineers, carpenters, masons, and all the other trades connected with building, a paper that should diffuse sound theoretical and practical information on the art in general and in detail throughout the whole country - the advance would be rapidly felt; for wherever there is an American, there at least, be he rich or poor, is a reader, a thinker, and an actor. Self-supporting schools of design for painters, decorators, modellers, carvers, paper-stainers, etc., must follow in due course; for the positiveness of the need would soon become evident, and the object would then be almost gained.

With reference to the appreciative and able public, the press is the improving power that is to be looked to. Cheap popular works on architecture, in all its bearings, popular essays, popular articles, popular engravings, and hundreds of them, and yet all good - these are the simple, truthful and effective means that are to influence the public, by supplying a medium through which it may see clearly and thus be led to criticise freely, prefer wisely, and act judiciously. These are the tools with which the lamented pioneer of genuine American architecture labored with such zeal and ability, and achieved so much. These are the materials that others following his example are now endeavoring to make use of, and the signs of the times in this present year, 1853, far from being in any way disheartening, are decidedly propitious. Proofs of an advancing interest in this subject and of an increasing desire to respond to it are springing up in newspapers, magazines, books, lectures, etc., and the public is certainly not slow to buy and read.

The truth is, not that America is a dollar-worshipping country, without any love for the arts, but a dollar-making country, with restricted opportunities for aesthetic education as yet; but when this want is freely ministered to in the spirit that it may be, and it is justly to be hoped will be ere long, there is reason to conjecture that correct architectural taste will be as universal in the United States as is at this present time a correct popular idea of the nature of a republican form of government. We , may then hope for genuine originality as well as intrinsic beauty in American buildings. This subject of originality, however, is perhaps worthy of separate future consideration.