uld not always smile so complacently in the thoughts of
the little learnings and petty preservations of his own immediate
sphere. And if every man, who has the interest of Art and of History at
heart, would at once devote himself earnestly--not to enrich his own
collection--not even to enlighten his own neighbors or investigate his
own parish-territory--but to far-sighted and _fore_-sighted endeavor in
the great field of Europe, there is yet time to do much. An association
might be formed, thoroughly organized so as to maintain active watchers
and agents in every town of importance, who, in the first place, should
furnish the society with a _perfect_ account of every monument of
interest in its neighborhood, and then with a yearly or half-yearly
report of the state of such monuments, and of the changes proposed to be
made upon them; the society then furnishing funds, either to buy,
freehold, such buildings or other works of untransferable art as at any
time might be offered for sale, or to assist their proprietors, whether
private individuals or public bodies, in the maintenance of such
guardianship as was really necessary for their safety; and exerting
itself, with all the influence which such an association would rapidly
command, to prevent unwise restoration and unnecessary destruction.

272. Such a society would of course be rewarded only by the
consciousness of its usefulness. Its funds would have to be supplied, in
pure self-denial, by its members, who would be required, so far as they
assisted it, to give up the pleasure of purchasing prints or pictures
for their own walls, that they might save pictures which in their
lifetime they might never behold; they would have to forego the
enlargement of their own estates, that they might buy, for a European
property, ground on which their feet might never tread. But is it absurd
to believe that men are capable of doing this? Is the love of art
altogether a selfish principle in the heart? and are its emotions
altogether incompatible with the exertions of self-denial or enjoyments
of generosity?

273. I make this appeal at the risk of incurring only contempt for my
Utopianism. But I should forever reproach myself if I were prevented
from making it by such a risk; and I pray those who may be disposed in
any wise to favor it to remember that it must be answered at once or
never. The next five years determine what is to be saved--what
destroyed. The restorations have actuall