A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 77 



before she is out of her teens, and live to hand 

 on the cherished plague. Dr. Culpeper can speak 

 sternly enough when a patient with half a constitu- 

 tion is being asked in Church ; but nothing serves 

 to turn the weedy girl or the rotten young fellow 

 from the course which seems almost to be a tradition 

 or a religion in our country, for the honour and 

 increase of tubercle. Our people seem to think 

 sound health a thing improper, if not almost impious ; 

 and no one the least interesting or socially valuable 

 who has not his proper disease, his symptoms, and 

 his remedies to recommend him. 



With such reflection on the ways of life in Arnington, 

 tuned to the inert gloom of the afternoon, we reached 

 the " twitten " or byway that leads to the church 

 and the parsonage. Here I left the Rector, with the 

 parish evils heavy upon him, and mounted the hill 

 for home in the gathering dark. The wind had 

 fallen, and in the dead calm there was some hint of 

 amended weather to-morrow. I turned at the 

 Tanyard corner to look back on the village, think- 

 ing of all the witless unnecessary wretchedness 

 being contrived there ; but my mind was ready to 

 throw off that solicitude, to guess at to-morrow's sun, 

 to remember the white days 



" Fulsere vere candidi tibi soles." 



