16 



strifes of men, the struggles and distresses, the efforts and dis- 

 appointments, shall we not sigh for the rural respectability of 

 our ancestors, and exclaim with Cicero, "■ There at my Lauren- 

 tium, I hear nothing that I repent to have heard, say nothing 

 that I repent to have said; no hopes delude, and no fears 

 molest me. Welcome, then, life of integrity and virtue." We 

 must learn to love the land, to love it as our fathers loved it, to 

 love it as the people of old loved it, whose great men enjoyed 

 their favorite retreats, and listened many a returning spring to 

 the nightingales that tenanted the dark ivy, and greeted the 

 narcissus, ancient coronal of mighty goddesses, as it burst in 

 beauty under the dews of heaven. When from our New Eng- 

 land cities, which have received their life-blood from the coun- 

 try, there flows back a current of wealth and intelligence to 

 beautify our towns and cultivate our fields, we shall make our 

 land still more the fit abode of a free and intelligent people. 



