Mistakes of Citizens in Country Life 195 



statesman, professional man, merchant, trader, mechanic, 

 all look to it as the only way of enjoying the otium cum 

 dignitate; and the great beauty and extent of our rural 

 scenery, as well as the absence of any great national capital, 

 with its completeness of metropolitan life, must render the 

 country the most satisfactory place for passing a part of 

 every man's days, who has the power of choice. 



It is not to be denied, however, that "retirement to the 

 country," which is the beau ideal of all the busy and success- 

 ful citizens of our towns, is not always found to be the 

 Elysium which it has been fondly imagined. No doubt 

 there are good reasons why nothing in this world should 

 afford perfect and uninterrupted happiness. 



"The desire of the moth for the star" 



might cease, if parks and pleasure grounds could fill up the 

 yearnings of human nature, so as to leave no aspirations for 

 futurity. 



But this is not our present meaning. What we would 

 say is that numbers are disappointed with country life and 

 perhaps leave it in disgust without reason either from mis- 

 taken views of its nature, of their own incapacities for 

 enjoying it, or a want of practical ability to govern it. 



We might throw our views into a more concrete shape, 

 perhaps, by saying that the disappointments in country 

 life arise chiefly from two causes. The first is from expect- 

 ing too much; the second, from undertaking too much. 



There are, we should judge from observation, many citi- 

 zens who retire to the country, after ten or twenty years' 

 hard service in the business and society of towns, and who 

 carry with them the most romantic ideas of country life. 

 They expect to pass their time in wandering over daisy- 

 spangled meadows, and by the side of meandering streams. 

 They will listen to the singing of birds, and find a perpetual 

 feast of enjoyment in the charm of hills and mountains. 

 Above all, they have an extravagant notion of the purity 

 and the simplicity of country life. All its intercourse, as 

 well as all its pleasures, are to be so charmingly pure, pas- 

 toral, and poetical! 



