CHAPTER III. 

 THE PURSUIT OF IDEALS. 



THE saying is attributed to Napoleon and is commonly 

 quoted in a mutilated form that " the British are a nation 

 of shopkeepers, and the strange thing is that they are 

 ashamed of it." This may have been more or less true a 

 century ago, but the time is long past since the British 

 recognised that they are a commercial nation. Indeed 

 the average Britisher, whatever his occupation or even if 

 he has none, prides himself on being a man of business. 

 We regard ourselves as pre-eminently a practical hard- 

 headed people, with no nonsense about us, whereas in fact 

 we are, in a marked degree, inveterate idealists. 



The discussions at the Agricultural Club were mostly on 

 practical topics, but however closely they kept to mother 

 Earth, a vein of idealism ran through many of them. On 

 some occasions a speaker would openly and avowedly 

 " hitch his wagon to a star." 



Here is a passage from an address on " Village Recon- 

 struction " : 



Village Reconstruction and rearrangement of the adjacent 

 land needs great unselfishness on the part of all concerned. 

 It will be a great test of character. It requires discipline and 

 industry an intense desire on the part of the inhabitant to 

 make his neighbour as happy in his surroundings as he is him- 

 self, or happier. 



It seems to me as a mere looker-on that to learn unselfishness, 

 discipline and industry, we must turn to Nature Nature that 

 we all look at but seldom see. 



Man has been given complete freedom of will and we can 

 all do exactly what we like, restrained only by man-made laws 

 which are intended to express the law of liberty. But man 

 has no effective control over Nature no control over life, and 



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