hat,--it is a matter of feeling. This winged figure not only gives
a poetic sense to the group, but a natural support and occasion for
action to the horse and rider. Uncle Sam must send Major Downing to
look at it, and then, if he wants other designs, let him establish
a concurrence, as I have said, and choose what is best. I am not
particularly attached to Mr. Greenough, Mr. Powers, or Mr. Crawford. I
admire various excellences in the works of each, and should be glad
if each received an order for an equestrian statue. Nor is there any
reason why they should not. There is money enough in the country, and
the more good things there are for the people to see freely in open
daylight, the better. That makes artists germinate.

I love the artists, though I cannot speak of their works in a way to
content their friends, or even themselves, often. Who can, that has a
standard of excellence in the mind, and a delicate conscience in
the use of words? My highest tribute is meagre of superlatives in
comparison with the hackneyed puffs with which artists submit to
be besmeared. Submit? alas! often they court them, rather. I do not
expect any kindness from my contemporaries. I know that what is to
me justice and honor is to them only a hateful coldness. Still I
love them, I wish for their good, I feel deeply for their sufferings,
annoyances, privations, and would lessen them if I could. I have
thought it might perhaps be of use to publish some account of the
expenses of the artist. There is a general impression, that the artist
lives very cheaply in Italy. This is a mistake. Italy, compared
with America, is not so very cheap, except for those who have iron
constitutions to endure bad food, eaten in bad air, damp and dirty
lodgings. The expenses, even in Florence, of a simple but clean and
wholesome life, are little less than in New York. The great difference
is for people that are rich. An Englishman of rank and fortune does
not need the same amount of luxury as at home, to be on a footing with
the nobles of Italy. The Broadway merchant would find his display of
mahogany and carpets thrown away in a country where a higher kind of
ornament is the only one available. But poor people, who can, at any
rate, buy only the necessaries of life, will find them in the Italian
cities, where all sellers live by cheating foreigners, very little
cheaper than in America.

The patrons of Art in America, ignorant of these facts, and not
knowing th