PRELIMINARY. 



THE love of dirt is among the earliest of 

 passions, as it is the latest. Mud-pies grat- 

 ify one of our first and best instincts. So 

 long as we are dirty, we are pure. Fond- 

 ness for the ground comes back to a man 

 after he has run the round of pleasure and 

 business, eaten dirt, and sown wild-oats, 

 drifted about the world, and taken the wind 

 of all its mopds. The love of digging in 

 the ground (or of looking on while he pays 

 another to dig) is as sure to come back to 

 him as ^ is sure, at last, to go under the 

 ground, and stay there. To own a bit of 

 ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant 

 seeds, and watch their renewal of life, 

 this is the commonest delight of the race, 

 the most satisfactory thing a man can do. 

 Cicero writes of the pleasures of old 



