100 A SHOUT HOMIIiY. 



CHAPTER VI. 



A Short Homily by the Country Mouse. — Why Towns must 

 be Tenanted, and why Parks should be Planted. — Things 

 to be Learned in the Hunting Field. — Social and Political 

 Aspects of Horses and Hounds. 



" The rural wilds 

 Invite ; the mountains call you, and the vales : 

 The streams, the woods, and each ambrosial breeze 

 That fans the ever-undulating sky ; 

 A kindly sky ! whose fostering pow'r regales 

 Man, beast, and all the vegetable reign." 



However alluring or fascinating the recreations 

 and amusements of a town life may appear, there 

 is a subtle poison in the cup of these enjoyments, 

 which those who drink deeply of them soon would 

 discover to their cost, did not the rules of fashion 

 put some check to their enjoyment. The opera, 

 the theatre, the ball-room, with their reeking at- 

 mosphere of over- crowded humanity, and heat 

 more oppressive and debilitating than that of Cal- 



