178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



narrow limits many a strong soul, many a great man. This community 

 can take the unfortunate, morally and mentally bent boys and girls 

 from the crushing life of the city, and, under the clearer skies of a 

 simpler life, by injecting more of the time element into their education, 

 make them into new and wholesome men and women. It can stimulate 

 its own boys and girls to higher ideals and larger views of the world, and 

 by arousing itself to this mission the community can not fail, in large 

 measure, to recover its own lost grip on the wider world. 



A great day for the rural district is clearly at the front. Are the 

 people of these localities awake to the opportunity ? It is because I think 

 I can answer the question in the affirmative that I am writing this 

 article. But, given the appreciation that a great opportunity is at their 

 door, the next movement is to grapple with it, and master it. That such 

 may be done, the people will be compelled to make some marked 

 changes in their thinking, and in their method of work. Here strong 

 and wise leadership is called for. After the minister, no man has 

 more nearly in his own hands the uplift of the rural district than the 

 schoolmaster. The school is a power plant for intelligence, vision, 

 training, and manhood. It is for use. And wisely used must render 

 great help in solving the rural problem. But the school board, and the 

 schoolmaster of the country districts, must rise to a higher and more 

 intelligent plane of energy if they are to count in the new life of the 

 community. 



Our age may well be termed a renaissance. But in that character it 

 has only just begun to dawn on the small and scattered sections of the 

 country. There came a day in the fifteenth century when Italy renewed 

 her youth. A new and mighty impulse to nobler ideals stirred the 

 nation. Slumbering instincts aroused themselves, and songs of the 

 spirit, unsung since the ancient empire passed away, became once more 

 a joy and a glory. New songs were sung. The imagination reasserted 

 itself, and the mind recognized a deeper and diviner significance in life. 

 It is called the Italian renaissance, the rebirth of literature and learning 

 and art in Italy. This awakening placed the nation on a high level of 

 intellectual and spiritual energy where she soon demonstrated to the 

 world that, in herself, she possessed an age, greater, in some respects, 

 than that of Pericles. 



But the rebirth of Italy was no miracle. It did not come in a night. 

 It was largely the product of the schoolmasters. At least it involved 

 the elements of learning and scholarship. The stimulus indeed was 

 from without, being the discovery and possession of Greek literature and 

 art, but in reality, the secret of it was in the stored energies of the 

 people. It was the uprising of long dormant forces in the heart of a 

 great nation. A miracle is not demanded to bring new visions and new 

 energies to the rural community. It is only necessary that they hear 



