148 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
the village ; so that the quiet, sequestered home, which in this land is a usual 
sight, until recent times was unknown to Europe. The village in the olden 
time meant, I believe, the habitation of the baron's villains, the villains did not 
mean the rascals but the toilers of the land, who were not to be parted from it. 
Neither the motives forming the old village, nor its customs have any per- 
ceptible connection with the modern idea of it. They are alluded to only that 
we may the better understand the older writers who have handled this subject, 
for it has been a theme of great writers. Virgil, in the pastorals, had occa- 
sion to speak of " the restful, untroubled village life." Tiberius in the island of 
Capri, took greater delight in the affairs of its vil age life, than in those of the 
Empire. Lord Bacon regarded it as a thing to be provided for, and made an 
element of his garden and so governed it as to be an object of beauty in the land- 
scape. From Washington Irving's description of Spanish village life, one would 
judge that the placing of the village and pretty much all its construction had been 
the care of some one, thinking more of his own convenience and economy, than 
of theirs who should live in said villages. 
The interval between these writers in the matter of time gave rise to a great 
many changes; yet the present is but a child of the past, and as such shows its 
parent's features. It is admitted that in matters of the outward life we are vastly 
gainers upon the past, but we have lost the charm of effective grouping, and an 
isolation, which is oppressive, especially to the younger people, has taken the place 
of such village festivities as are described in the *' Deserted Village" and the 
" Vicar of Wakefield. " We gain a greater sturdiness of character, and a greater 
self reliance by having no neighbors on whom to call for help or amusement. 
The steady stream of migration from the farms and the country to the cities indi- 
cates the desire for a greater attractiveness in the village homes. 
The village of the present day and in our land is a great gain upon the past. 
Of it we now speak. Those of the smaller sort are in main peaceful and thrifty, 
the homes of a worthy and industrious class, mostly tillers of the soil^ or those 
engaged in works that are dependent on the farmer. The predatory baron has 
disappeared, and the villagers are not necessarily villains in any sense of that hard 
word. 
A closer grouping might give rise to greater convenience and many added 
beauties. The little patches of marigolds and roses mingled with grape-vines, 
pinks, cabbages, and beets that do duty as garden are capable of improvement 
by a wider separation. If the good housewife's array of flowers had a limited 
area and that joined by another of about the same size, and so on a row of them 
say fifty feet in width by seven hundred in length and then around a square 
fairly planted with various kinds of trees, the poor posies would not look so 
lonely, but form part of a scene of beauty, especially if a well-kept green sward 
bordered the beds and the walks. While a similar array of vegetables in the 
areas behind the houses would form a scene assuring to the hungry, and provi- 
dent against the season when no outdoor growth is possible. The new wire 
fences are a sufficient barrier, if one is needed; upon the front it is better to have 
