250 PHASES OF FARM LIFE. 



uneasy proprietor stands off and looks, and calculates 

 by how much he has missed the picturesque, at which 

 he aimed. Our new houses undoubtedly have greater 

 comforts and conveniences than the old, and if we 

 could keep our pride and vanity in abeyance and for- 

 get that all the world is looking on, they might have 

 beauty also. 



The man that forgets himself, he is the man we 

 like, and the dwelling that forgets itself in its purpose 

 to shelter and protect its inmates and make them feel 

 at home in it is the dwelling that fills the eye. When 

 you see one of the great cathedrals, you know that it 

 was not pride that animated these builders, but fear 

 and worship ; but when you see the house of the rich 

 farmer or of the millionnaire from the city, you see 

 the pride of money and the insolence of social power. 



Machinery, I say, has taken away some of the pic- 

 turesque features of farm life. How much soever we 

 may admire machinery and the faculty of mechanical 

 invention, there is no machine like a man ; and the > 

 work done directly by his hands, the things made or * 

 fashioned by them, have a virtue and a quality that 

 cannot be imparted by machinery. The line of mow- 

 ers in the meadows, with the straight swaths behind 

 them, are more picturesque than the " Clipper " or 

 "Buckeye" mower, with its team and driver. So 

 are the flails of the threshers, chasing each other 

 through the air, more pleasing to the eye and the ear 

 than the machine, with its uproar, its choking clouds 

 of dust, and its general hurly-burly. 



