GENERAL PRINCIPLES 25 



The deliberate determination to found a family, or to perpet- 

 uaiie one already honorably established, and to preserve its 

 traditions, is not as general as it ought to be either in the 

 country or the city. Such a motive appeals only to men and 

 women of mental and moral substance, to such men and 

 women as will always be the natural leaders of their commu- 

 nities until civilization begins to decline through moral decay. 

 But the opportunities for the carrying out of that determina- 

 tion are better in the country than in the city. The reason is 

 found primarily in the greater economic solidarity of the ru- 

 ral as compared with the urban family, to the fact that 

 the rural home is part and parcel of the rural business and 

 the: rural estate. 



The rural districts the seed bed of the population. It has 

 been said that the greatest social distinction is not that between 

 laborers and employers, but that between the people who dwell 

 in the city and those who dwell in the country. There is no 

 doubt that the tendencies of city life are quite different from 

 those of the country. City life tends to develop ideals, stand- 

 ards, sentiments, and manners different from those of rural 

 life, and thus to separate city people from rural people. If this 

 tendency could go on unimpeded for a great many genera- 

 tions, it might produce wider differences than it does ; but it 

 is checked by the fact that the cities have to be continually 

 replenished from the country. In any modern city it will be 

 found that many of the most prominent people come from the 

 country, and that the great majority of them are descended 

 from parents or grandparents who lived in the country. While 

 this continues there can never be so wide a distinction be- 

 tween city people and country people as would otherwise 

 occur, for the reason that city people are themselves mostly 

 country people recently come to town, that is, within two, three, 

 or, at the most, four generations. 



