LUTHER BURBANK 



teaching everywhere made itself felt, determining 

 a receptive attitude of mind that presaged the new 

 intellectual era. 



If ever there was a time when it was true that 

 "the old order changeth" in the profoundest ap- 

 plication of the words to the most sacred beliefs 

 of men, that time was the closing epoch of the 

 nineteenth century. 



Play and Work 



It is worth while to dwell on these less tangible 

 aspects of the environment of boyhood, because 

 their influence was probably more important than 

 that of many events that have to do with the reg- 

 ular routine of the workaday world. 



As to that routine, not much need be said, 

 because there was little associated with it that was 

 individual or characteristic or that was largely 

 influential in determining the activities of my later 

 years. 



The recreations of such scant leisure hours as 

 the New England child of this period could find 

 were the usual recreations of childhood. I was 

 rather too frail of body to enter with full enthu- 

 siasm into the rougher sports. But in general the 

 sports and amusements of the New England child 

 were of rather a subdued order, as became the 

 intellectual atmosphere in which we lived. 



Coasting and skating were among our most 



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