Satisfaction with the Country 159 



out of doors ought to have some reflection 

 in the house. Could we enlist Ruskins 

 enough to teach simple and sensible ideas 

 on beauty to our farmers ? Could we per- 

 suade them to stop shooting their best 

 friends, the birds ? Could we make them 

 see the superiority of way-side flowers to 

 bare, trim borders? 



One of my dreams has been of a house 

 of art, founded deep in the needs and re- 

 spect of a people whose capacity for making 

 and translating beauty is surpassed by none. 

 From this house should radiate ennobling 

 influences toward every quarter, so that 

 hewers of wood and drawers of water round- 

 about would view it with pride and admira- 

 tion, and shape their course moderately by 

 its examples. It should be far from town. 

 That house should be a nursery to talent ; 

 a refuge to genius. Oh, yes, we all know 

 that some work is best done in the rush 

 and pressure of competition and need. 

 And we ought to know that some other 

 things are spoiled by just those conditions. 

 Fielding scratching at a belated manuscript 

 with a wet towel on his head has been 



