24 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



people out of a hundred we meet. Most of us 

 can count upon our fingers the men and women 

 we know whose talk is worth listening to. I 

 am not sure that the effect of city life as seen 

 in our large cities is any thing to be proud of. 

 In the old days, before railroads and post-offices 

 and cheap newspapers and books, country life 

 meant intellectual isolation. To-day it means 

 nothing of the kind ; no matter how far you are 

 from the centres of civilization the mails bring 

 you all the thought of the great world worth 

 recording. The conditions have changed. 



People talk of the inspiration of the crowd, 

 the electrical influence of great numbers, the 

 brilliant minds reflecting light upon the dull 

 ones. I confess that I can see but little of this 

 in our American cities. The danger is rather 

 that the individual will be colored by his sur- 

 roundings and reduced to that level. Our great 

 public schools tend to turn out boys and girls 

 all knowing the same things, all thinking the 

 same way, all intellectually fashioned upon the 

 same model, and that a poor one. Unless 

 I am able to provide for my boys and girls 

 teachers of exceptional merit, I should rather 

 trust to home influence and the district school 



