WHAT WE LOSE AND WHAT WE GAIN. 



"\17HEN the prisoners were released from the 

 Bastille by the mob, it is said that some 

 of the old men begged to be allowed to return 

 to their cells ; they had become so accustomed 

 to darkness and confinement that they dreaded 

 the open air. The man who can find nothing 

 but ennui in the fields is an illustration of the 

 same curious phenomenon the loss of apprecia- 

 tion of what is best in life. For several years I 

 have been harping upon this theme ; I have 

 preached in season and out of season, that open- 

 air life is the right one, and that any man who 

 ties himself down for eight or ten hours a day 

 the year round to a desk, is paying too much 

 for the money he earns; and I have done this 

 without, so far as I know, making a single con- 

 vert. I have preached country life and coun- 

 try work until some of my friends dread the 

 mention of the subject. In the beginning 

 they argued the matter ; now they laugh, as if 

 191 



