WHY I PREFER A COUNTRY LIFE, jgi 



akin to a fool ; and a citizen's real worth may be 

 measured by his manner of speaking of the coun- 

 try people. That a significant difference obtains 

 can scarcely be denied, but it is not one that al- 

 together exalts the dweller in town and degrades 

 the farmer. Will any one pretend to say that 

 the latter is less intelligent or refined ? The sim- 

 ple fact is, the two classes are differently edu- 

 cated : the townsman largely by books, the farm- 

 er to a great extent by his surroundings; the 

 former comes by his facts through hearsay, the 

 latter by observation. In other words, the citi- 

 zen tends to artificiality, the farmer to natural- 

 ness. The one is educated, the other acquires 

 knowledge. Dead, weigh their brains, and which 

 may claim the greater number of ounces ? 



And here let me say, in passing, that not all 

 knowledge worth possessing has yet got into 

 books. Is it not true that the brightest features 

 of current literature treat of the world outside a 

 city's limits ? What, indeed, would modern nov- 

 els be without something besides brick and mor- 

 tar for a background ? Will the reader become 

 enthusiastic over a story the scenes of which 

 shift only from Brown's parlor to Jones's and 

 back again ? 



The thrifty farmer may see nothing that at- 

 tracts in the ball-room, and fail to follow the 

 thread of the story, or be charmed by the airs of 



