10
THE ETHICS AND AESTHETICS OF COUNTRY LIFE.
deep and continuous enjoyment. The untrained growth of vegetation, the freedom of the birds, the unloosed winds give him the sense of liberty and of equality—with the buoyancy of the air his heart expands to receive all mankind as brothers.
The country lad looks into the masses of clouds overhead and the grass and moss beneath, out of which his imagination produces its luxuriant, tangled and fanciful creations. He takes pleasure in dreamland and cloudland and repeats the glowing dyes of his fancy in the sombre fields of experience.
The city youth has for his associations the throngs of mankind, sees their twistings and intricacies and that is what he has to practice. The long lines of edifices, their windows glittering in the yellow sunlight or growing grey in the rains; the narrow street between with its barren pavement battered by wheels; the squareness and ugliness and regular or irregular deformity of every thing, these are his surroundings. On all sides greet his eyes the works of man and man's working, but a child of nature has the works of God and God's working.
There is a warm friendly atmosphere in the country congenial to ethics and aesthetics. The simplicity and solitude of country life develops natural taste that leads people to prefer substance and heart to gracefulness of dress, manner and aspect; to liking reality in speech better than a prettily turned sentence; a sincere manner better than a well trained one, and in all other ways and things to setting above custom and semblance ever lasting truth.
In country life one who will study nature opens a book with as numerous and varied pages as there are blades of grass, ripples of water, drops of rain and winds in the heavens. All bears witness to the intention of the Supreme Being that we are to receive more from the bounties of nature than the weed and the worm. The flowers seem intended for the solace of humanity, ministering to the greatest passion and the simplest joy. The trees,
strong and upright, inspire lofty feelings. The constant stream, cutting its way to the sea, teaches us steadfastness and perseverance. The rains fall, cleansing the air, and with it the heart is soothed and purified. The boundless expanse of the sky impresses the soul with thoughts of eternity. Winds breathing lightly across slopes of velvet fields or whirling madly over hills, or as De Quincey phrases it, "uttering the same hollow, solemn, but saintly swell as though they might have swept the fields of mortality for a thousand centuries," tell us of the fatality of the body, but the immortality of the soul.
In the histories of the past the fruits of these influences are shown. The sturdy sons of the soil have stood steadfastly by the great reforms, have fought valiantly for them. It was the peasants of Switzerland that preserved liberty in the midst of surrounding despotism. Their deep rich valleys were secure places where it loved to abide and their rugged mountains served for it as a fortress of defence. Religious freedom was embosomed in the winding dales and deep sunk glens of Scotland, nurtured on its heath and among its hills. In our own country for the cause of constitutional right it was the yeomanry who "fired the shot heard round the world." And now, in the cause of temperance, "history repeats itself;" the rural districts stand firm and determined to see it to a victorious end. The seed of reform finds a rich receptacle in the hearts of the country people. There it does not attain the growth of a hot bed, but is nourished, springs up and develops healthily and naturally.
In a word if we review as in a panorama the events of history from the beginning of time, at first the picture presents an uncertain, mingled scene, stained and dimmed by ages, but after the lapse of years and distance of time, there emerge from this confusion bold figures and familiar deeds, and on, and on the picture will stretch "to the crack of doom." There is darkness, harshness and incongruities, but all this is brightened, softened and blended by the effects of country life. Its pristine light hovers over the background, pervades the present and pierces the future—It is heaven's light.