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CHAPTER IX. 



COUNTEY LIFE. 



IN my opinion, this agricultural wealth is owing to 

 three principal causes. That which first presents itself, 

 and which may be considered the origin of the two others, 

 is the taste of the wealthier and more influential part of 

 the nation for a country life. 



This predilection is not of yesterday's birth, but dates 

 from the earliest history, and is a part of the national 

 character. Both Saxons and Normans are children of 

 the forest. Combined with a spirit of individual inde- 

 pendence, those barbarous races, of which the English 

 nation is composed, had all instinctively a turn for soli- 

 tary life. It was not so, however, with the Latin people. 

 Wherever the Eoman spirit was preserved in Italy, 

 Spain, and, to a certain extent, in France a predilec- 

 tion for town life was early manifested. The Eoman 

 fields were abandoned to the slaves ; all who aspired to 

 distinction resorted to the city. The name alone of 

 peasant, milieus, was a term of contempt, and the name 

 of city was associated with elegance and politeness, 

 urbanitas. In the modern Latin communities these pre- 

 judices still prevail. In our own day we still look upon 

 the country as a sort of exile, and it is still more so with 

 the Italians and Spaniards. The desire of all is to live in 

 town, for there intellectual enjoyment, refinement, society, 



