92 Outlook to Nature 



need the freshness and the spontaneity, and 

 the power to rely on one-self. The day of 

 homespun is past, and the day of the machine 

 has come : danger is that the machine and the 

 formal affairs shall come between us and the 

 essentials. We are too likely to work by proxy 

 and through servants. 



We need the example of simple institutions. 



With the increasing complexities of civi- 

 lization, it may be impossible to simplify 

 the machinery of our political life ; yet we 

 all have the desire to do so, and we feel 

 that the more direct the institutions the more 

 efficient and enduring they are. The simple 

 native institutions have largely determined 

 the methods and points of view in great 

 geographical regions ; the New England 

 town meeting, with its ideal democracy ; the 

 southern court-house, with its social strati- 

 fication ; the central-west schoolhouse, repeat- 

 ing the democracy of New England but 

 with a freer individualism ; the arid-west 

 ditch meeting, repeating again the democracy, 



