ife. Where country life is safe and enjoyable,
where many of the conveniences and appliances of the town are joined
to the large freedom and large benefits of the country, a high state
of civilization prevails. Is there any proper country life in Spain,
in Mexico, in the South American States? Man has always dwelt in
cities, but he has not always in the same sense been a dweller in
the country. Rude and barbarous people build cities. Hence,
paradoxical as it may seem, the city is older than the country.
Truly, man made the city, and after he became sufficiently
civilized, not afraid of solitude, and knew on what terms to live
with nature, God promoted him to life in the country. The
necessities of defense, the fear of enemies, built the first city,
built Athens, Rome, Carthage, Paris. The weaker the law, the
stronger the city. After Cain slew Abel he went out and built a
city, and murder or the fear of murder, robbery or the fear of
robbery, have built most of the cities since. Penetrate into the
heart of Africa, and you will find the people, or tribes, all
living in villages or little cities. You step from the jungle or the
forest into the town; there is no country. The best and most hopeful
feature in any people is undoubtedly the instinct that leads them to
the country and to take root there, and not that which sends them
flocking to the town and its distractions.

The lighter the snow, the more it drifts; and the more frivolous the
people, the more they are blown by one wind or another into towns
and cities.

The only notable exception I recall to city life preceding country
life is furnished by the ancient Germans, of whom Tacitus says that
they had no cities or contiguous settlements. "They dwell scattered
and separate, as a spring, a meadow, or a grove may chance to invite
them. Their villages are laid out, not like ours [the Romans] in
rows of adjoining buildings, but every one surrounds his house with
a vacant space, either by way of security, or against fire, or
through ignorance of the art of building."

These ancient Germans were indeed true countrymen. Little wonder
that they overran the empire of the city-loving Romans, and finally
sacked Rome itself. How hairy and hardy and virile they were! In the
same way is the more fresh and vigorous blood of the country always
making eruptions into the city. The Goths and Vandals from the woods
and the farms,--what would Rome do without them, after all? The
city