Satisfaction with the Country 155 



our chances, that our furious struggling 

 with books and machinery has not made 

 us happier, that every advance toward ease 

 and power has cost us a better comfort and 

 brought fresh difficulties ; so we go toward 

 simplicity again. They said that when we 

 were so perfectly served by steam and elec- 

 tricity as to need little work with our hands 

 and minds we would be freest and happiest ; 

 but contrast our eager, anxious state with 

 that of men in the last century. We spend 

 fewer hours in shops and offices, we climb, 

 walk, and row no more, for lifts and cars 

 and ferry-boats take us where we like, the 

 poorest of us lives as well in the matter of 

 creature comforts as the rich colonist used 

 to live, we have more common treasures 

 in parks, museums, and pictures, life and 

 property are better defended ; yet, where 

 is the fine old leisure of that other day? 

 Where do we get our air? Where are the 

 artists and artisans who never sell a thing 

 until it is done as well as they can do it? 

 Where is the country home ? Would to 

 heaven our children might have five years 

 among the hills ! They would seldom go 



