116 THE JONATHAN PAPERS 



ing comprehension. I realize that I, in my 

 patronizing one-sidedness, was quite wrong. 



City folk go to the country, as they say, to 

 &quot;get away&quot; justifiable enough, perhaps, 

 or perhaps not. They seek spots remote from 

 the centres; they choose deserted districts, 

 untraveled roads; they criticize their ances 

 tors unmercifully for their custom of building 

 houses close to the road and keeping the front 

 dooryard clear of shrubbery. But they who 

 built those homes which are our summer 

 refuge did not want to get away; they wanted 

 to get together. The country was not their 

 respite, it was their life, and the road was to 

 them the emblem of race solidarity nay, 

 more than the emblem, it was the means to 

 it. This is still the case with the country peo 

 ple, and as I live among them I am coming to 

 a realization of the meaning of the Road. 



In the city one can never get just this. 

 There are streets, of course, but by their very 

 multiplicity and complexity they lose their 

 individual impressiveness and are merged in 

 that great whole, the City. One recoils from 

 them and takes refuge in the sense of one s 

 own home. 



