210 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



rebuff" a God-given taste, and say, "music is for richer folks, go weed the onions." 

 One longs after books, another after tasteful arrangements, dainty prettiness of 

 home and surroundings ; in the name of common sense, then, why not are these 

 inclinings as so much family capital? Let us cultivate individual preferences, and 

 so round up the whole home life into a beautiful completeness. 



But so to cultivate, it is evident that one should have time left for cultiva- 

 tion— leieure. Here is a point of importance : all our homes should not be spent in 

 a perpetual grind for bread, acres and coupons. Let the higher nature have its 

 opportunities; let the sensibilities be cultivated as well as corn and potatoes. As 

 by fostering individual tastes we succeed at last in obtaining for the home, culture 

 along all important lines, and so make home life beautiful and beloved, by granting 

 a just leisure to each member of the family we make the home, not a prison, but a 

 paradise. There are golden hours for rest and enjoyment and self-improvement, and 

 these lend their blessed glow to the remainder and raise them above the level of 

 common things. 



Let me illustrate : A farmer of my acquaintance who got from his boys more 

 and more willing work than any other that ever I knew, let me one day unwit- 

 tingly into his secret. I think he did not know that he had a secret. He said : 

 "We don't rise at dawn at my house ; I don't want the family to feel that they 

 begin the day by being robbed of rest; I don't drive, drive, drive until dark ; when 

 a hard push is needed, the boys see the need and give it ; but I like to let them have 

 time for their own pleasures. When one of them by diligence finishes a piece of 

 work ahead of time, I don't set him at something else immediately and so put a pen- 

 alty on diligence. I say, 'there lad, go a fishing, or go and read, go visit your friends, 

 go swing in the hammock, go play on your violin, or whatever I know that par- 

 ticular bay hest likes to do.' That, you see, is a reward of diligence." That was 

 his secret — one I submit to you worth knowing. [ beg of you lay to heart that 

 illustration, and let it impress upon us all the advantage of securing to each one 

 leisure from the moiling and delving of our common life. We have in nature 

 God's example for this — , 



O friend, I pray you bear with me; 



The grass hath time to grow in meadow lands, 

 And leisurely the opal, murmuring sea 



Brealis on its yellow sands. 



And leisurely the ring-dove on her nest 



Broods till her tender chick shall pick the shell , 



And leisurely down-fall from ferny crest 

 The dew-drops in the well. 



And leisurely your life and spirit grew 



With yet the time to grow and ripen free. 



This leisure will make working hours more effective ; it will make our minds 

 brighter, our hearts warmer, our tempers sweeter. 



Given this leisure, what are some of the appliances for home culture where- 

 with to fill our leisure, so that it shall be a busy leisure, full of the rest of change 

 of thought and broader growth? 



I cannot expect to do more than hint at a theme which has filled and may yet 

 fill volumes. As I said at beginning, much must be admitted as granted. 



Order, scrupulous neatness, the method that makes leisure possible, the com- 

 mon sense which administers all— these are to be assumed as present and lying at 

 the very foundation of culture in the home. 



