No. 4.] COUNTRY LIFE. 127 



into the mud. I went home and my father was frightened 

 when he saw me, Init when he found that I was not hurt he 

 commenced to laugh and called one of the neighbors to 

 look at me. He wanted him to see " a star actor." When 

 the drama came off in the church I was not there. I knew 

 the audience would all laugh at me. After that I never 

 had any ambition to be an actor, — it was all knocked out 

 of me as I fell over on my head. In the country towns 

 such foolish ambitions are knocked out. The interlinkino; 

 of desires and hopes, the open free acquaintanceship keeps 

 men within the lines of common-sense. 



There are just as grand men in the country towns to-day 

 as ever lived there in all the centuries of the past. They 

 are living there now. 



It is natural for us to say that everything is running 

 down. In 1702, two hundred years ago, Increase Mather, 

 writing about New England, said, "New England, look to 

 it that the glory be not removed from thee, for it begins to 

 go. The glory of the world seems to be on the wing." 

 That was two hundred years ago. Some of you have said 

 the same thing within a week, but it means no more now 

 than it did then. 



A healthy farmer goes out and hoes on a row of corn, 

 and while he hoes there comes to him feelino^s and thoughts 

 sublime, high as Heaven, an inner experience as wide as 

 the earth ; and many a farmer has had more enjoyment in 

 hoeing a row of corn than a city man has in a life time of 

 sidewalk experience. The city laborer longs for an oppor- 

 tunity to be once alone in silent meditation. No man 

 becomes great who does not take time for separate medita- 

 tion. The city people have learned its necessity. They 

 are going back to the country and buying land and raising 

 the value of the property. They now spend their sum- 

 mers there. The country people will soon be mingling 

 closely with the city people. 



In the country the people have religious liberty. Half 

 of them do not go to church, because persons in authority 

 think that it does not matter what kind of a man they send 

 there for a minister. The country churches are in many 

 places in a state of decadence seemingly now. But they 



