Vi INTRODUCTION. 



We have chosen this title to the volume here offered to the public, from 

 a belief that it will readily convey the idea most prominent in the mind 

 of the author when engaged in its preparation. In saying that a man is 

 at home, it will be understood that he is in his own house, or on his own 

 premises ; that he is attending to his own duties, and is of course familiar 

 with their nature and importance. And the expression has a constructive 

 or figurative as well as a literal meaning. In this sense we use it. 

 Nothing is more natural than to suppose a man at home or in his own 

 house is familiar with its architecture with the materials of which it is 

 composed ; with its several apartments and their respective uses ; with 

 its conveniences and defects and especially with its inmates, with its 

 furniture, and with all its other contents. If he were not familiar with 

 all this he would be an anomaly of manhood. Thus, also, we suppose 

 that an individual living in a city is familiar with its streets and lanes ; 

 with its public and private buildings ; with its inhabitants and social 

 economy; and with its amusements and all its diversified business 

 elements. And so we presume that an individual living in the country 

 is particularly familiar with rural scenery and rural labor ; with rural 

 society and rural recreations ; and not less with all the constituents of 

 domestic economy and rural enterprise and labor usual in such localities. 

 These are natural inferences. They are the spontaneous results of all 

 conventional habits of thought and uses of language. Consequently, 

 every man is judged to be well acquainted with all the constituents of his 

 own business transactions, and with the varied ramifications of the labor 

 bestowed upon them, whether mental or .physical. 



Hence, of the individual familiar with these things, we say, that in 

 reference to his country, or to his more particular local residence, or to 

 his occupation, he is at home ; and that if he is not familiar with them, 

 he is not at home that his appropriate sphere is somewhere else. For 

 instance, if one go to an apothecary's shop with a prescription for certain 

 compounded medicines, and the clerk cannot find the materials of which 

 they are to be composed, or is incompetent, if found, to prepare them, or 

 is unable to read the prescription in consequence of his ignorance of the 

 scientific terms used in it, we say he is not at home. So likewise, if one 

 were to go to a mechanic's shop for a piece of workmanship in his own 

 line of labor, and he were ignorant of the materials to be used in its 



