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favorite place of resort to the citizens of Woodstock and 

 indeed of Windham county, who gratefully appreciate the 

 taste and liberality of the proprietor. Thousands of people 

 annually gather here to celebrate the fourth of July, and listen 

 to the distinguished speakers invited to address them. In 

 view of the number and eminence of the speakers and the wide 

 range of their topics this celebration on these beautiful grounds 

 is quite unique. 



10. The educational bearings of this subject, if less obvious, 

 are not less important. The external improvements prompted 

 by these associations have in many towns developed a local 

 pride and public spirit which have displaced many a bleak, 

 weather-worn and comfortless school-house. Public interest 

 once enlisted in the adornment of streets, parks, cemeteries and 

 kindred plans is sure to embrace the school- house. The people 

 are learning that village improvement promotes the growth 

 and prosperity of a town by inviting wealthy and desirable 

 residents from abroad, just as neglected streets, school-houses 

 and other signs of an illiberal policy invest a town with an 

 air of discouragement and decay. The influence of such an 

 association in cultivating the taste, fostering the study of 

 nature, developing in youth a love of flowers, vines, shrub- 

 bery and trees, all the stronger because they have planted or 

 cultivated them, thus fostering domestic attachments and 

 checking the excessive passion for city life, suggest some of 

 the ways in which it supplements the work of the school. 

 The love of nature sharpens the senses and quickens all the 

 intellectual faculties. An early interest in natural history 

 favors habits of observation and trains both the memory and 

 imagination. 



The taste should be early cultivated. To love the beautiful 

 should be held as a religious duty. In the very structure of 

 our being, God rebukes the ignorance or indolence that so 

 often dwarfs this noble faculty, designed to be an ally of virtue 

 subordinating the animal and sensuous to the intellectual 

 and spiritual. The love of the beautiful may become a 

 source of high enjoyment, and give new incentives to mental 

 effort. It reverently admires nature and makes her a constant 

 teacher. 



