LECTURES AND ESSAYS EEAD AT INSTITUTES. 405 



in this grotesque imagery, -we know there is a widespread atmosphere of refine- 

 ment in New England life not found farther west. The one leading quality 

 in this inherited excellence lies in home life, in the spirit of reading and inde- 

 pendent thinking, the reverence for learning, and the learned which pervades 

 almost every home there. A good book finds entrance and welcome in the 

 New England home as nowhere else. It is respected by the father, reverenced 

 by the mother, and read by the children. It may be a poem, or the last report 

 of the Department of Agriculture ; it may be a literary magazine or the 

 *' Farmer's Almanac," it finds readers in the family, whether appreciative or 

 merely ambitious — but readers anyhow. The New England boy is taught to 

 feel that he has only to pack his books in his bundle and start on the road, 

 which leads to a foreign mission. 



We live in a mixed world. Good and evil seem to be inseparable. 



" Hearts, like apples, are hard and sour 

 Till crushed by pains relentless power." 



There is no true home where there has not been sorrow, struggle, self- 

 sacrifice, renunciation, courage, heroism. And if all the members of the 

 family have been made perfect through suffering or otherwise, the farmer's 

 ''Eden" may be disturbed by outsiders. (Satan was an outsider till the first 

 apples were ripe and gathered). Your young roosters may fight with the neigh- 

 bor's and come out of the conflict minus cockeye and comb; your pullets may 

 eat the strawberries and scratch up the peas ; your cats may kill the chickens ; 

 your puppies may worry the kittens and suck the eggs ; your pigs may break 

 out, root up the potatoes, and spoil the cabbage; your calves may butt the 

 children, nibble the shrubbery, and curtail the young horses; the hired girl 

 may water the coffee, steal cookies and preserves for the hired man, burn the 

 biscuit, and scald the pup. A little comfort will be drawn, however, from 

 the general law of compensation ; the roosters will be knocked into pie ; the 

 pullets will be cooped up to hard labor in solitary confinement; the pigs 

 will go to the pork barrel and lard crock ; the calves will go to the butchers — 

 your Sunday feet will stretch the skin of the calves, and their juicy joints will 

 stretch your Sunday stomach ; the cats will go courting and get shot; the pup 

 will be drowned, and the hired girl get married. Let no mournful lamenta- 

 tions arise over microscopic ills. Cheerfulness knits up the ravelled sleeve of 

 care, and extracts sunbeams from cucumbers. 



To sum up : Home is rendered enjoyable by good health, good sleep, good 

 living, comfortable and attractive dwellings, pleasant home relations, and the 

 genuine gentility of habits and manners coming from cultured minds and 

 loving hearts. The true home is the abode of dignity, propriety, beauty, 

 grace, love, genial fellowship, and happy associations. 



And now we close as began — the heart of our country lies in her homes. 

 The test of national institutions is the character of the people. The world — 

 wealth, art, knowledge, power — is enjoyable just so far as we make it tributary 

 to our home life. Side by side stand the altar of Liberty and the altar of 

 Home. If a pure religion has kindled their flames, let us never forget that it is 

 from these flames, burning heavenward with a steady strength of warmth and 

 lustre, that Providence brings the fiery swords which arm us for our highest 

 achievements and most glorious victories. 



