Pleasing associations are connected with Roman and Italian architecture, especially to those who have studied their effect in all the richness and beauty with which they are invested in the countries where they originated; and they may be regarded with a degree of classic interest by every cultivated mind. The modern Italian style recalls images of that land of painters and of the fine arts, where the imagination, the fancy, and taste, still revel in a world of beauty and grace. The great number of elegant forms which have grown out of this long cultivated feeling for the beautiful in the fine arts,-in the shape of fine vases, statues, and other ornaments, which harmonize with, and are so well adapted to enrich, this style of architecture,- combine to render it in the fine terraced gardens of Florence and other parts of Italy, one of the richest and most attractive styles in existence. Indeed we can hardly imagine a mode of building, which in the hands of a man of wealth and taste, may, in this country, be made productive of more beauty, convenience, and luxury, than the modern Italian style; so well suited to both our hot summers and cold winters, and which is so easily susceptible of enrichment and decoration, while it is at the same time so well adapted to the material in the most common use at present in most parts of the country,-wood. Vases, and other beautiful architectural ornaments, may now be procured in our cities, or imported direct from the Mediterranean, finely cut in Maltese stone, at very moderate prices, and which serve to decorate both the grounds and buildings in a handsome manner.
