THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 177 



Above all, in the greater persistence of rural family life, the greater 

 stability of the marriage tie, the consequently larger family, the rural 

 community forms a surer foundation for the future than the city. Pro- 

 fessor Carver, in his " Principles of Eural Economics," says : 



The rural family is a stable institution, whereas the city family has become 

 a relatively unstable one. The divorce rate is much higher in the cities than in 

 the country districts. The city family tends to die out through celibacy, steril- 

 ity and various other agencies, whereas the rural family persists. The farms not 

 only feed the cities with their material products, but they also furnish the cities 

 with men and women. 



All this is within the possibility of the country community ; in many 

 ways, has always been, and now is pressing for recognition as a 

 noble opportunity, yet it is here that the community has most signally 

 failed. Some things along this line naturally are to its credit, but they 

 are few, and compared with its possibilities and opportunities, seem 

 insignificant. The locality that might render the world such high ser- 

 vice seems oblivious to the demand. Knocking at its door to-day, asking 

 for food and shelter, for new vision and higher planes of physical and 

 moral energy, stands a great age, while the men of the rural community 

 remain unseeing, unbelieving, timid, indifferent, almost antagonistic. 

 The rural district is greatly hampered with an inheritance of social 

 customs that well nigh negative any new thought, or hope, or plan. Its 

 circle of thought is narrow, its plane of energy is low, and it easily 

 wearies of any reform. On the other hand, the city is awake with vital 

 energy. In his " Energies of Men," the late Professor James says : 



City and country people illustrate the difference between men who are 

 energizing on a high and a low plane of life. The rapid rate of living, the num- 

 ber of decisions in an hour, the many things to keep account of in a busy city 

 man's or woman's life, seems monstrous to the country brother. A day in 

 Chicago or New York fills him with terror. But settle him there, and in a year 

 or two he will have caught the pulse beat. And he will have come to enjoy this 

 tremendous life. 



That is, he will have climbed to a higher plane of energy, and is now 

 using more of his possible power, living more nearly his larger life 

 than before, and is a stronger man. But if the man from the rural dis- 

 trict, under the city stimulus, can rise to a high plane of energy, may he 

 not also do that at home, in the midst of his native environment? 



The rural community must rise to these higher planes of energy and 

 cultivate its great waste opportunities. It must learn that on its new 

 birth, in the last analysis, the world of men and women are mainly rest- 

 ing their hopes for the future, not only for comfort, but also for life 

 itself. Furthermore, it must learn, that, not only in the line of food, 

 or in the way of health and happiness and reform, is it a necessity of the 

 world, but also, in the possibility that its farm homes, in simple and 

 subtle ways, by healthy, natural processes, may develop within their own 



