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��CITY AND COUNTRY.
��largely an aspersion of the rational facts of the case.
The ascription of cupidity to the des- cribed phenomenon is untenable and base. It is untenable because much of the most substantial wealth is created and enjoyed in the country ; it is base because it de- fames the fair purposes of thousands who never make money their special pursuit on entering the domain of city life. The imputation of a love of license is ration- ally impossible. In the confines of a great city, the law of constraint is many times more forcibly impressed than in the country; even in the city's haunts of vice is a sterner discipline and a more rigorous etiquette than is known in the halls of honorable intercourse, and the penalties of disorder are more painful in their reactions. Sequel to the fact that it is not shown that the general moral status of the mass of migrating people is degraded by the change, the cords of legal bondage are more and more sensi- bly felt as step by step one winds his way from the vicinity of the green fields and hedgerows to the dun, paved and crowd- ed marts.
In the present dominant state of our country life, the springing generation in- clines longingly towards the associations of city life because they are civil. Civ- ilization is the precious boon that in- spires the efforts of every true genera- tion. Discipline and classification being the first practical effect of civilization appealing to the mind of the incipient civilian, his nature seizes them as the means of better actualizing the potential qualities locked up in the capabilities of his being. Association affording increas- ed knowledge and broader facilities, civ- ilized culture rapidly becomes to him more and more a grateful realization. The improved opportunities which civil culture provides for healthful and enno- bling recreation secure to him a greater
quickness of that vivacity that makes life a scene of enjoyment as well as a field of labor. It is the law, progress and en- joyment of the city that invites people from the country. It is not that they love the natural attractions of the coun- try less, but that they love the civilized advantages of the city more. When peo- ple go to the city, they leave all but their recollections behind ; when people go to
��the country, they, in their manners and customs, take something of the city along with them, fostering it as the em- bodiment of a cultivated privilege. It is a law of civilization that it should be so.
We do not wish to even appear to ad- vocate an exclusive social economy. We have no prejudice against the country and no fulsome adulation to extend to- wards the city. If it were wholly possi- ble, we would fain dissociate, in the mind of the reader, the terms country and city from their purely restrictive mean- ings. So doing,we could safely say,that,as all men begin in the country, so they should all end in the city. It is the same as to say natural crudeness should give place to civilized refinement. The Bible, you know, begins with man in a garden and ends with him in a city. Still, using the terms of common speech, all people cannot live in cities. It were better that some that are now living in cities were back again in the country. Still again, it is hardly to be expected that many of them will come back. Some cannot, if they would. Some do not wish to come back. Some — and these are they that make the city what it truly ought to be — do not wish to come back unless they can come back civilized. What to them are sunlight, air, and fresh, green earth, un- less they can order their lives civilly, cul- tivate wisdom and beauty, and entertain themselves choicely? If they are rich, they can come into the country and bear themselves independently. If they are poor, what can they do?
Our country life should become more
civilized. There should be in it more re- spect for intelligent order. Civil law in its etymological significance should be more regarded. The rising country pop- ulation should be acquainted* with order, intelligence, industry, recreation, taste, beauty and reverence. Every township should faithfully set apart its provisional accommodations for all these things. The dominant public sentiment should insist upon the improvement of them all. If the executive facilities are not suffi- cient for these things, a draft should be made upon the city, society adopting its suggestions, manners and models. Thus may the natural and legitimate desires of the socially ambitious be gratified, and a greater number be content to find a home by the graves of their fathers.
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