The Blood of the Nation 



gate, and in default of better will have 

 the land to themselves. 



We may now see the true significance 

 of the " Man of the Hoe," as painted 

 by Millet and as pictured in Edwin 

 Markham's verse. This is the Norman 

 peasant, low-browed, heavy-jawed, " the 

 brother of the ox," gazing with lack- 

 lustre eye on the things about him. 

 To a certain extent, he is typical of the 

 French peasantry. Every one who has 

 travelled in France knows well his kind. 

 If it should be that his kind is increas- 

 ing, it is because his betters are not. 

 It is not that his back is bent by cen- 

 turies of toil. He was not born op- 

 pressed. Heredity carries over not op- 

 pression, but those qualities of mind 

 and heart which invite or which defy 

 oppression. The tyrant harms those 

 only that he can reach. The new gen- 

 eration is free-born, and slips from his 

 hands, unless its traits be of the kind 

 which demand new tyrants. 



22 



