792 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to harmful recreations to an extreme degree. The domestic class there- 

 fore presents, on the whole, a fairly healthy life. The majority of its 

 members are women and mothers ; and, in the gladness with which they 

 tender their love and adoration to the young and innocent life that 

 comes into their charge, they find perchance, after all, the purest plea- 

 sure, the most enhancing, the most ennobling recreation, that, even in 

 the midst of many cares and sorrows and bereavements, falls to the lot 

 of any section of the great community. 



The agricultural class, less favored in recreative opportunities than 

 the others which have passed before us, living a laborious and very poor 

 life, ever at work for small returns, and finding little recreation beyond 

 that which is of mere animal enjoyment, is still comparatively favored. 

 To the agricultural worker the seasons supply, imperceptibly, some de- 

 light that is beneficial to the mind. 



These as they change, Almighty Father ! these 

 Are but the varied God. 



Mysterious round ! What skill, what force divine 

 Deep felt in these appear: a simple strain, 

 Yet so delightful, mixed with such kind art, 

 Such beauty and beneficence combined. 

 And all so forming one harmonious whole — 

 Shade unperceived, so soft'ning into shade 

 That as they still succeed they ravish still. 



The labor of the out-door agricultural class, blessed by these chang- 

 ing scenes which the exquisite poet above quoted so exquisitely de- 

 scribes, is varied also in itself. Each season brings its new duty: the 

 spring its meadow-laying and sheep-shearing ; the summer its haymak- 

 ing ; the autumn its harvesting and harvest-home, and fruit-gathering; 

 the winter its plowing and garnering, and cattle-tending; with sun- 

 dry well-remembered holidays which are religiously kept. There may be 

 through all this continuous wearing labor ; there is ; but, as it is not 

 monotonous, it is to some extent recreative, and the facts of mortality 

 tell that it is saving to life. The agricultural classes present a mortal- 

 ity below the average in the proportion of ninety-one to one hundred of 

 the mass of the working community. Moreover, there is hope for the 

 agricultural classes in the fact .that it is comparativelj'' an easy task to 

 supply them Avith a perfect roundelay of beautiful recreations for their 

 resting hours. It is only to remove from them the grand temptations to 

 vice in the beer-shop and the spirit-store, and to substitute for these re- 

 sorts a rational system of enjoyments, to win for the country swain the 

 first place in that sj- mmetry which Plato called " right good." 



The utter blankness, the blankness that may be felt, in respect to 

 recreation is realized most in the millions of the industrial class who 

 live in the everlasting din of the same mechanical life; who see ever 

 before them the same four walls, the same tools, the same tasks ; who 



