FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 33 



aud partial retirement of the country more and more enticing even 

 to those whose business is in the cities. The desire to avoid the crowd 

 has always been conspicuous among Anglo-Saxons, and in England 

 leads to a widespread preference for country life on the part of the 

 educated and well-to-do people. In our own eastern states, the main- 

 tenance of country houses is becoming more common, and it seems likely 

 that when good roads and other improvements have made rural life a 

 little ]nore convenient a considerable movement away from the cities, on 

 the part of those who can afford it, will set in all over the country. 



Living upon one's own land has attractions for the human mind and 

 benefits for the human character that can never disappear, and is above 

 all others the thing that the city man envies the farmer. The instinct of 

 possession is perhaps the deepest instinct we have, and the man who owns 

 and works land can gratify it more visibly, more tangibly, more whole- 

 somely, perhaps, than the man of any other class, rich or poor. He is 

 master of himself and of his immediate environment as no man can be in 

 the city, and he may hope to transmit this mastery to his children's 

 children. 



Hon. H. R. Pattengill was called upon to discuss the educational topics 

 that had been presented, and he said: "I have been extremely pleased 

 with the papers that have been presented by President Snyder and Prof. 

 Adams. I had planned to be today at an important meeting of educators 

 in Chicago, but the moment I saw the program of this splendid meeting, 

 I decided that I would have to stay away from Chicago at least another 

 day. 



''I am rejoiced especially to note the trend of the papers that have 

 been read, and their broad and catholic spirit. There is scarcely any- 

 thing in them that I can criticise, and perhaps little that I can add. I 

 saw recently a huge piece of machinery made in one of the principal 

 manufacturing cities of Michigan shipped to the Clyde works in Glasgow, 

 Scotland. I asked if that were not an unusual thing, and I was told, no, 

 that that complicated and expensive piece of machinery is in use in 

 scores of huge machine shops in Great Britain and Europe. I asked 

 myself, how does it happen that America, this young nation, is today the 

 industrial pier of any nation on earth. A good many might say it is due 

 to our natural resources. But look a moment. Africa has many of 

 these wonderful resources of soil, of climate, of minerals and of forests; 

 but Africa lacks one thing that America possesses, what Whittier calls 

 'the riches of our commonwealth, the cunning hand and cultivated brain.' 



"I like also the reference to the fact that teachers must be investigators, 

 for, as a matter of fact, investigators are also teachers, and even the man 

 who spends his time in research ought to be able to inspire people to love 

 science and art. But the teacher is even more than an investigator, the 

 teacher is a character builder. 



'Another idea advanced that I like is that the university of today is 

 not content with teaching merely the old things. A man who helps man- 

 kind certainly ought to be as proud of it as the man who knows the 

 antiquities is proud of his knowledge. So I am glad that the universities 

 are so practical and helpful to mankind, for what is their work if not to 

 be helpful. Prof. Paul Hanus of Harvard says: 'The chief end of educa- 

 tion is to make people useful and happy.' I believe in that doctrine. We 

 must make people not only happy but useful, and not only useful but 

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