Rich Americans fear lest their offspring may be looked on as useless members of society, and the instinct that leads them to do so is well enough as far as it goes, but the natural independent comment on it all is a Why spend so much time in making and saving money, if it is to be rather an incumbrance than otherwise to the next generation?. The real difficulty, and it is a serious one, is the limited range allowed by custom to intellectual energy. It is neither fair to the individuals nor to the society of which they are responsible units, that the sons of rich men should be tied down to one or two money-making pursuits; they ought to be in every department of literature, science, and art, not as dilettanti connoisseurs, but as earnest laborers, striving boldly for a higher national excellence than has yet been achieved. This is their proper post. Poor men can scarcely afford to occupy it. It is a glorious position - the only proper one for them to assume; and so long as they neglect it, so long will wealth be misunderstood and misapplied. The rich should study to be practical theorists, so that the less rich may be theoretical practitioners. Every young republican of means in America, should aim to be aristocratic in its literal sense; that is, to be 'aristos' - the very best.

He has advantages which his comrades have not. He can afford to give ample, unembarrassed study to any subject that suits his powers, and to work out its resources quietly and steadily. He should be one step in advance of the rest of creation - a leader in the fore. most rank of the foremost band. The value of a class of men thus occupied would be unquestioned, and it would not be so unnatural, then, for a parent to labor for money, 00 that his son might enjoy the rightful opportunity to lire an easy life of elevated action and noble exertion".

The number of poor rich men is becoming every day greater in this Union. The mere rise of real estate has placed very many in independent circumstances which they know not how to enjoy, from neglected education and energies thrown away. Some retire to the country, but when the architect and the planter have been dismissed, they feel an utter vacuity of mind, and if they are not famous sleepers, they go to the bottle or the card table. Had they been taught a single branch of natural history, or imbibed a love for a garden and for trees, their time would never hang heavily on their hands.

Education should begin early. " The lack of taste all over the country, in small buildings, is a decided bar to healthy, social enjoyments; * * a refined propriety, and simple, inexpensive grace, ought habitually to be the distinctive marks of every habitation in which a free American dwells".

"Unfortunately, however," continues our author, "this is not the case. Even the village school itself, in which the earliest and most active germs of progressive thought are commenced, is almost universally a naked, shabby structure, without a tree or a shrub near it, and is remarkable chiefly for an air of coarse neglect that pervades its whole aspect. The improvement of the village school-house is probably the most powerful and available lever that can be applied toward effecting a change for the better in the appearance of rural buildings generally: all see it, all are interested in it, and all are more or less influenced by its conduct and appearance. It is placed under the control of the leading men in each place, and it might easily be made the most cheerful and soul-satisfying building in the neighborhood, instead of, as at present, a God-forsaken, forlorn-looking affair, that is calculated to chill the heart and insult the eye of every thoughtful beholder. The cost would be utterly incommensurate with the advantage to be obtained. An extra hundred or hundred and fifty dollars at first starting, would do much. The roof might then have a good projection, and be neatly finished.

Some sort of simple porch might be added, the chimney might be slightly ornamented, and the rest would then depend on proportion, color, and surrounding the building, from time to time, with shrubs, creeping vines, and young trees. These, in after years, would offer a welcome shade, and give an air of domestic comfort and liberal vitality to the whole effect. A similar result, through precisely similar means, would probably, in course of time, be arrived at in the small cottages in its vicinity, and, as suc-cess would be cheap and invariable, the example would have a fair chance of spreading".

It is one of our painful duties to pass several times a month a public school-house near Philadelphia, where a large collection of children are supposed to be educated; every inch of the yard, not trodden over, is filled with the vilest weeds, and in wet weather the approach is .through deep mud. What can be expected of children when they are educated to think such a scene even bearable? The selection of the directors, or of the teachers, in this particular instance, must have been an error.

There is much, in the same strain of good sense, which Our limits forbid us from copying. One additional extract will afford the reader an opportunity of judging of the merit of the book, which we have the more pleasure in commending, because it has not been sent to us for notice: -

"It has been, and is too much, the custom, both in town and country houses, to consider the dining-room as a part of the house to be used solely for eating and drinking purposes, and to give it but little attention for that reason. It is, indeed, quite common to find, even in comparatively large houses, a meagrely-furnished apartment in the basement set apart as the scene of whatever daily festivity is carried on in the house.

"If a country residence is built on sloping ground, so that the basement rooms on one front are entirely unobstructed, and are supplied with windows overlooking the garden, this objection is not so strong. But even then, the trouble of going up and down stairs to and from the sitting-room is annoying, and it is far preferable to have both rooms near together on the principal floor. But when, as is generally the ease, the house is built on level ground, and the lower rooms are lighted solely by area windows, nothing can be more entirely opposed to the idea of freedom that is suggested by life in the country than a basement dining-room. It is in this apartment that the different members of the family are sure to assemble several times a day, though they may be almost completely separated at other times by circumstances, or the various pursuits that occupy their attention, and it is highly desirable that such a room should fitly and cheerfully express its purpose, and be one of the most agreeable in the house, so as to heighten the value of this constant and familiar reunion as much as possible, and to encourage in every way, by external influences, a spirit of refinement and liberal hospitality.

The fact is, that the art . of eating and drinking wisely and well is so important to our social happiness, that it deserves to be developed under somewhat more favorable circumstances than is possible in a basement dining-room. There is no necessity, in any country house, that such a room should be restricted in its use to one purpose. If fitted up with book-cases, and enlivened by engravings, it will be constantly used as a family room; for, with proper pantry arrangements, it can be left entirely free in a few minutes after each meal".

The accompanying vignette gives a slight sketch of an oak mantlepiece, introduced into a design for a dining-room, executed for H. W. Sargent, Esq., of Fishkill Landing, on the Hudson. It required to be simply planned, so that it could be easily executed in the country by a clever carpenter. The effect is excellent.

No previous volume has appeared among us, on this subject, so ably illustrated, and though the reader in search of a model for his dwelling, should fail to find the exact picture that will suit his wants, he cannot read the text without acquiring an amount of information vastly beyond the cost of the book.

We have prepared some copies of Mr. Vaux's able illustrations, but having exhausted our limits, must be content, this month, with a vignette illustrating a study for a garden out-building, supposed to be situated where it must be seen, more or less. Mr. Vaux says it has not been executed. We look upon the work as of so much importance that we shall return to it.

Design for Oak Mantlepiece.

Review #1

Villas and Cottages. A Series of Designs, prepared for Execution in the United States. By Calvert Vaux, Architect (late Downing & Vaux), New York, 1857. Second notice.

Having, last month, given a favorable opinion of this elaborate work, we proceed to select from its illustrations two drawings of houses, which' appear to be about a fair exhibition of its contents in this particular. The first, is:

Design No. 16. - Picturesque Square House.