726 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



must not expect that when we pass round the corner, as we are 

 doing even now, that things will all at once become very, very 

 bright. 



*' Looking at the question purely from the monetary point of 

 view, we cannot but see that the actual productions of the soil 

 probably must, in the very nature of things, fetch a less price, 

 just in proportion to the progress of universal civilisation 

 throughout the world at large, and the ever-increasing facilities 

 for communication and transit. In so far as these benefits lead 

 to a lack of cultivation of the land in England, they are, we all 

 hope, to be looked upon as transitory. The re-action must come 

 soon, and in emphasising the good accruing to the bodily frame 

 of man from the active and regular habits necessarily character-? 

 istic of agricultural pursuits, we are striving to show what 

 splendid chances now offer themselves to those possessing the 

 necessary means and qualifications. 



*' It is a grievous error made by very many people, that they do 

 not do enough actual physical work in the open air. Men and 

 women are becoming too much like hot-house plants, which can- 

 not bear to be taken out into the fresh air. There are far too 

 many of us who are utterly ignorant of the beautiful sights which 

 are never very far distant from us, even when we are * cribbed, 

 cabined, and confined ' in some boxed-up corner of a huge city. 

 The railways well-nigh annihilate space, and places which but a 

 little time ago were inaccessible, except to the rich, are now open 

 to almost all. The greatest pleasures in life are to be gained by 

 active employment of some kind or other among the wondrous 

 beauties of the rural scenes existing all around us, replete with 

 the harmonious symphonies of nature. 



"There can be no doubt that the close confinement so generally 

 associated with our modern pursuits in these days is, in point of 

 fact, to be looked upon as nothing less than a disastrous national 

 calamity. The spirit of indoorism, and that of another gigantic 

 evil, examinationism, if we may be allowed to use the two 

 expressions, are grievous and crying errors, which should be 

 remedied at almost any cost. It is high time that the re-acdon 

 should set in against examinations, and the pernicious practices 

 of overwork and cramming thereby engendered. There are far 

 too many examinations now-a-days, and they are working an 

 incalculable amount of harm, a degree of mischief which can 



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