FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 163 



I cannot help thinking that it is not im 

 probable that the disease is in some good 

 measure the result of the immensely rapid 

 development of discovery, invention, and 

 manufacture, of the stupendous changes of 

 the past century. These have been too 

 much for us. Animal and vegetable organ 

 isms need time to fit them to new relations ; 

 we are out of key with our surroundings ; 

 we are in a state of ferment and unstable 

 equilibrium, of moral and mental mix. 



We need to get away a little distance 

 Irom the crowd, to bare our foreheads to 

 the breeze and cool our throbbing temples. 

 Here we may lie among the daisies, and rest 

 ourselves until we can draw our breath in 

 steadiness and quite unconsciously. At 

 first the song of the lark or the bobolink 

 may hardly impress our ear. But after a 

 while we see the flashing of a wing, and 

 mayhap begin to realize a refreshing fra 

 grance in the air. And probably it may 

 occur to us that there are such things as 

 false standards, and ignoble contests, and 

 wasted lives. What does the man or 

 woman need, after all ? Food and clothing 

 and shelter, a lift to the imagination, and 

 good companionship, and how little they 

 cost ! A pest upon your gross ambitions ! 



