XI. 



HOME-LIFE. 



" It lias often been pointed out by English-speak- 

 ing writers that there is no word more specially 

 distinctive of the English and American tempera- 

 ment than the word "• home." In French, as we 

 have frequently been told, there is no such word 

 — an Englishman, on either side of the Atlantic, 

 could never conceivably get on without it. And 

 in the main we do not doubt that this peculiarly 

 English characteristic, this touching love of home 

 and of the home-life, this beautiful clinging to the 

 Teutonic ideal of the family hearth, this cherished 

 memory through life of the domestic circle, lias 

 been productive of much lasting good and real 

 liappiness to the British peoples. We may not 

 perhaps be quite so vastly superior to other nations 

 as we are fond in our innocent self-esteem of tak- 

 ing for granted silently, — it may not really be so 

 '^ greatly to our credit " (as Mr. Gilbert says) that 

 we still remain Englishmen and Americans, — but 

 whatever good pi)ints do actually exist in the 

 national temperament are no doubt largely trace- 

 able to the extreme strength of the family feeling 



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