10 



surround us. Let us endeavor to understand what this life in the 

 country is. Let us know whether it is indeed good for us to be 

 here. 



Do not fear that I am about to inflict upon you any of those 

 sentimentalities of sweet rural felicity, which were at one time so 

 much in fashion. The day of that unreal pastoral poetry is over. 

 All those pictures of wonderful shephei'desses, with unimagina- 

 ble crooks, and most extraordinary jBounces, tending gentle sheep, 

 only less simple than themselves, while their faithful swains, in 

 doublet and hose, the very pink and point device of fashion, piped 

 all the dreary day their love and happiness, until one is faiu to 

 believe that even an anticipated hour of that purgatory in which 

 good Catholics believe, would have been a relief, — all these are 

 gone, or live only in the fading paper hangings of some quiet old 

 mansion, or in the more faded pages of Laura Matilda, and the 

 Delia Cruscan school. 



We are too practical, too much in earnest, too thoughtful also, 

 to accept these vague, unreal dreams, or be satisfied with such 

 views of rural life. 



What is this living then — this life, — whether it be life in the 

 city, or in the country ? It is education — education in the largest 

 and widest sense, tluit is the great mystery of life. We are not 

 here to pass away a measured number of years only, a pebble 

 can do that, the dumb beasts do that ; we are here to educate, 

 to unfold, to develop ourselves. Not the education of schools or 

 college, or books alone, but the education of living, the develop- 

 ment of heart as well as brain, of the aflfections and moral nature, 

 as well as the understanding — and of those higher faculties, which 

 are the earnest and the prophecy of that other life, for which they 

 are unfolding, even as the wings of the fledgling in unfolding, are 

 the promise and prophecy of his future migrations, beyond the 

 mountain and across the wide ocean. I hold then, that beyond 

 all question, as compared with city life, this hfe in the country, 

 for all the objects and ends of this real culture and education, 

 gives to man, not only the best, but the indispensable opportunities 

 and advantages : the only text books, the true great library, the 

 real instruction, the best teachers. 



Although this theme is far too wide for any address like this, 

 let us examine it in a few aspects, and consider a few thoughts, 



