g the country to them, and give them a chance, at least, to
experience its humanizing and blessed influence.

A park, or a series of parks, with its trees and running waters, its
grass and plants and flowers, its variegated surface and changing views,
and all the beauty with which such scenes are flooded, supplements the
labor of the church and school in educating, refining, and elevating the
community. There will be less gambling, drinking, and quarrelling in
Boston, when the mass of its inhabitants shall be allowed to partake of
the blessing and beauty of a public park.

These considerations naturally bring us to the third point which has
been mentioned, viz., the economic aspect of the matter. Few will deny
the truth of the above statements; but the admission of their truth is
apt to be coupled with the reply, "The park will cost so much, we cannot
afford it." It is true that it will cost a good deal, but not so much to
each household as the inevitable cost of the sickness, vice, and death,
which the opportunities that a park provides would prevent. Are human
life and health and virtue so cheap, that we can afford to count the
cost of procuring and maintaining them? Are vice, crime, and disease so
unimportant, that we can afford to let them thrive, and propagate
themselves indefinitely? We cannot repeat too often, or ponder too
seriously, the statement made in the first report of the Park
Commissioners: "Nothing is so costly as sickness and disease: nothing so
cheap as health. Whatever promotes the former is the worst sort of
extravagance: whatever fosters the latter is the truest economy." The
truth is, it will cost the city of Boston more to get on without a park
than to incur the expense of buying and taking care of one. We pay at
present an enormous sum yearly for the maintenance of hospitals,
prisons, jails, and workhouses. It is not asserted that the
establishment of a park will depopulate these institutions, or render
them unnecessary; but no sanitarian will deny that one result, and a
most important one, of the establishment of a park, would be to diminish
the number of those who are compelled to resort to these institutions. A
greater economy than all this would be found to accrue to each household
in the increased comfort, diminished sickness, more vigorous health, and
ample enjoyment, that would be added to all its members.

Boston has been long and justly celebrated for its health, beauty, and
wealth. I