1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 197 



is ever discounting the future, to his disadvantage. He is attempt- 

 ing things before he is capacitated for their best enjoyment, or 

 fitted for their best influence. 



Again, the ample space and room of the country for the sports 

 of childhood, as contrasted with the city streets, affects the grow- 

 ing mind in a great variety of ways. There is one that has inter- 

 ested me much, which I have never seen alluded to, but which I 

 have thought much of. I will merely hint it briefly. 



The child is the undeveloped man, and there is an element of 

 savagery in him, certain of the savage instincts of the race that 

 come out strongly. The country boy has ways of gratifying these 

 in a healthy way, and grows out of them intellectually and 

 morally better. He traps and hunts the small game of the farm. 

 With the dog he digs out the woodchucks, or hunts the squirrels, 

 and traps the rabbits, etc., and in a thousand and one ways grati- 

 fies that instinct which is left as a legacy from our savage ances- 

 try. The boy of the city has the same instinct, and it is more 

 liable to lead him into the direction of rowdyism, drinking, 

 and violence for its gratification. We all know that there is a 

 period in the boy's life when there is a fascination about rowdy- 

 ism, about acts of violence towards society, and in violent pleas- 

 ures, which it is hard to be patient with in our riper years. In the 

 city it more often results in deeds of violence, breaking windows, 

 unhanging gates, night disturbances, etc., etc. With the country 

 boy this instinct is worked off in a more harmless way, in ways that 

 are less liable to be a bhght and regret in his after life and which at 

 the same time were as really the gratifying of the old savage instinct 

 which gives such a pleasure to hunting, fishing, and roaming free 

 over the fields and through the forests. Every successful system 

 of education must take into account these savage instincts of child- 

 hood and youth, bear with them, have patience with them, and try 

 to direct them into those channels where they do the least harm to 

 the man. 



Many good people think that the chief reason why the country 

 is better, morally, to bring up children in (and particularly way- 

 ward children) than the city, is because that there are fewer tempt-, 

 ations. This view has but a small basis of truth. It is true that 

 many of the temptations of the city are absent from the country; 

 but every place has its own temptations, and the country has many 

 which the city has not. No; this theory is a relic of that o}d 



