CIVILIZATION. 11:3 



tliuugliL which ilhiniinuU'S and wariu.s llir world, if, ahis ! 

 it do not dcstroy it. It is i'wnn bread tluit tlie blood 

 derives its best juices, so that the development of 

 genius as well as of wealth is traceable to its origin in a 

 grain of wheat. 



All life is in the bread — material life, as in its sul)- 

 stance; intellectual life, as in its instrument; religious 

 life, as in its symbol. And to behold the crow^ning 

 glory of the bread, we must lollow it to the Catholic 

 altar, where, in the hands of Christ, by the most amaz- 

 ing of all m3'steries, it becomes the eternal food of the 

 soul, and the august centre of the religion of the human 

 race — ''the bread of God, which givetli life unto the 

 World."** 



3. Agriculture as holding civilization to the arena of 

 its best achievements — country life. 



I have no disposition to be unjust toward the city. I 

 would not speak of cities, with the poet, as '' the sties 

 of nations.'"! And I do not look, with him, for their 

 disappearance in the course of time. Whatever the vice 

 and wretchedness which they hide, or which they engen- 

 der, cities are the necessary and glorious centres of 

 national life. But they are exceptional centres. The 

 real scene prepared by Providence for the social activi- 

 ties of man, is not in the city, but in the country. 

 There, are gathered, with a sort of prodigality, the con- 

 ditions most fiivorable to the health, both of body and 

 of soul. There, the laboring population realize most 

 readily the prolific wedlock of happiness and virtue; 

 while the upper classes, themselves kept free from cor- 

 ruption, find opportunity of exercising, on a vast scale, 

 that benign iniluence of fortune and education which 

 should be their highest delight, as it is their holiest 



* Johu, vi. 33. t M. de Lamartiue. 



