That request explains the want of delight with which he remembered his childhood: because it shows that his good, kind mother, in the midst of her baking, and boiling, and darning the children's stockings, made no allowance - as how should she, not being able to perceive them - for the possibly very positive tastes of her boy. Besides, the first duty of each member of the poor household was, as she justly conceived, to get a living; and as Andrew was a delicate child, and could not lift and carry much, nor brave the chances of an out-door occupation, it was better that he should be in the shelter of a store. He, however, a youth of sixteen years, fresh from the studies, and dreams, and hopes of the Montgomery Academy, found his first duty to be the gentle withstanding of his mother's wish; and quite willing to 'settle,' if he could do it in his own way, joined his brother in the management of the nursery. He had no doubt of his vocation. Since it was clear that he must directly do something, his fine taste and exquisite appreciation of natural beauty, his love of natural forms, and the processes and phenomena of natural life, immediately determined his choice".

*The whole family occupied a position in society not inferior to that of A. J. DOWNING, though in a different sphere of action. One brother was a successful physician, and died young; the other, Charles Downing, is well known as one of the most intelligent nurserymen and pomologists in the country, now living retired at Newburgh.

Now we were told by one who ought to know, that he never expressed or entertained a desire to go to college, and if he had, we are quite certain that the family means did not forbid. Elsewhere, too, he speaks of his never being heard of as a partner in the nursery. This we know to be a mistake, for he was recognized and heard of as having his full share, and more than his share of influence in the business affairs of the nursery firm, and we believe he was always in childhood and manhood regarded with more than ordinary respect and affection by his brothers and sisters.

The memoir refers to "a certain aristocratic hauteur" in Mr. Downing's manner, which was always evident in his personal intercourse. "In his dealings with workmen, with publishers, with men of affairs of all kinds, the same feeling which they called 'stiffness,' 'coldness,' pride," haughtiness,' or 'reserve', revealed itself." This is explained as follows:

"Its origin was, doubtless, two-fold. It sprang first from his exquisite mental organization, which instinctively shrunk from whatever was course or crude, and which made his artistic taste so true and fine. That easily extended itself to demand the finest results of men, as of trees, and fruits, and flowers; and then committed the natural error of often accepting the appearance of this result* where the fact was wanting. Hence he had a natural fondness for the highest circles of society - a fondness as deeply founded as his love of the best possible fruits. His social tendency was constantly toward those to whom great wealth had given opportunity of that ameliorating culture - of surrounding beautiful homes with beautiful grounds, and filling them with refined and beautiful persons, which is the happy fortune of a few. Hence, also, the fact that his introduction to Mr. Murray was a remembered event, because the mind of the boy instantly recognized that society to which, by affinity, he belonged; and hence, also, that admiration of the character and life of the English gentleman, which was life-long with him. and which made him, when he went to England, naturally and directly at home among them.

From this, also, came his extreme fondness for music, although he had very little ear; and often when his wife read to him any peculiarly beautiful or touching passage from a book, he was quite unable to speak, so much was he mastered by his emotion. Besides this delicacy of organization, which makes aristocrats of all who have it, the sharp contrast between his childhood and his mature life doubtless nourished a kind of mental protest against the hard discomforts, want of sympathy, and misunderstandings of poverty".

Here again Mr. Curtis seizes upon the imaginary poverty of Mr. Downing's childhood, want of sympathy, etc., to sustain a theory far from being philosophical. If it were true that Mr. Downing had been oppressed in his early years by poverty or unkind treatment, would that the more incline him to be proud and aristocratic? We see instances of this kind in the world sometimes we admit, where ignorant and selfish men become purse-proud and insolent, forgetting their humble origin; but Downing was not the man to do this. He would have been just what he was if he had inherited a kingdom, instead of the red cottage at Newburgh. His pride, reserve, or whatever else it might be called, and we admit that it was very generally observed and commented upon, was owing, as we always thought, to a severe self-discipline both of mind and manners to which Mr. Downing continually subjected himself. There was a certain self-restraint apparently upon him at all times and in all places that bade defiance to every thing. Miss Bremer in her letter refers to this matter.

She says:

"I am not sure of being right in my observation, but it seemed to me that in the course of no long time, the mind of my friend had undergone a change in some views that to me seem of importance. When I knew him at first he seemed to me a little too exclusive, a little aristocratic, as I even told him, and used to taunt him with, half in earnest, half in play - and we had about that theme some skirmishings, just good to stir up a fresh breeze over the smooth waters of daily life and intercourse. I thought that he still wanted a baptizing of a more Christian, republican spirit Later I thought the baptizing had come, gentle and pure as heavenly dew.

"And before my leaving America I enjoyed to see the soul of my friend rise, expand, and become more and more enlarged and universal It could not be otherwise, a soul so gifted must scatter its divine gifts as the sun its rays, and the flower its seeds, over the whole land, for the whole people, for one and for all. The good and gifted man would not else be a true republican/

As to the essays themselves we have nothing to say. The public verdict has long since been passed upon them. All we have to do is to recommend their perusal to every person interested in country life. When we lost Mr. Downing it was not the best of architect, or landscape gardeners, or pomologists we lost, for we have others that may fill his place in any or all of the departments; but as a rural architect and landscape gardener combined, he left behind him no equal. He had studied these two subjects, so closely interwoven with one another, until he had matured them. He had made the study of the beautiful the chief business of his life, until not a line or shadow of a building, a tree, or a landscape, could escape the scrutiny of his keen and delicate perception.

Some other even might have possessed as much knowledge and taste as Mr. Downing, and yet have scarcely ever been heard of; but he commanded attention by his dexterous and graceful pen. Subjects that in other writers' hands were dry and uninviting, he clothed in a garb so rich and fanciful, that people read them for amusement quite as much as for instruction. His descriptions of the beautiful - as for instance his "beau ideal of a fine ornamental tree," is no less irresistible than his sarcasm on "Oockneyism in the Country."' This was the secret of his power in awakening taste and giving it the right direction, and this it was that enabled him to accomplish so much with so little effort and in so short a time.

It was said of him, we are told in the memoir, that " if his income had been a million a minute, he would have still been in debt." This was merely meant to convey the idea that he was not a man who managed his finance in a way that the world calls prudently, which we presume to be the truth. He desired money only as a means of promoting his comfort and gratifying his taste. Gold was to him merely to be used in the embellishment of life, not in making it miserable and mean. The cash-book or the ledger were less concerns to him than the book of nature. The money that your prudent, money-making men would have invested in bonds or stocks, he spent freely upon his dwelling and his garden, and in entertaining a refined society of congenial tastes. But he was an industrious, energetic, courageous man. He became embarrassed in his affairs as much more prudent men have, but "his composed manner was unruffled as ever." "His house was still the resort of the most brilliant society; still - as it always had been and was until the end - the seat of beautiful hospitality." He was of a sanguine temperament; he had full faith in his ability to earn enough to maintain his position, and he did so.

He had faith in the growth of taste and liberality in regard to rural affairs among his countrymen, and felt that his taste and genius could not be unemployed or unpaid; and he was right. At the time of his death his services were called for in all directions, and his prospects were of the most flattering character. At the age of thirty-seven he had built up a new profession, and made himself an acknowledged master of it, and had written a library of the most elegent and instructive works on rural affairs. Will we admit, then, that Mr. Downing died poor! No hoary millionaire ever dropped into his grave and left such riches behind him. The riches that he left, the earnings of early manhood, are not such as "fast" relatives might spend in a few years, but such as will endure forever.