Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/413

Rh The learned men and the teachers of America have replied,—

“Schools, and the education of the people in these schools.” But the popular education of schools speaks merely to the understanding, and cannot do otherwise.

Both constitution and schools are alike perfect in their insufficiency.

They cannot give new life to this good-will. They cannot bring the kingdom of God into the innermost life of every human being.

The power to do this lies in an institution anterior on earth, and in human life, to constitutions or to schools.

Behold there on the banks of the river, amid that open field, or on that green hill, a small human habitation. It is neither large or splendid; but its style of architecture is ornamental, it speaks of taste and convenience; a verandah or piazza formed of lovely trellis-work, up which clamber vines and the fragrant clematis; roses and honeysuckle surround the house, beautiful trees, the natives of all zones are planted around; you see the maple, the elm, and the linden-tree, the oak and the chesnut, the walnut and the robinia, the ailanthus and the sycamore, the cedar and the magnolia, the cypress and the myrtle, and a great number of beautiful, odoriferous flowers; these are so grouped around the house as to give it a sheltered appearance, without impeding the views which are always kept open to allow the inhabitants to behold a beautiful or extensive landscape.

You see the home of North America; the home with its characteristic features, as it is found in all the States, as well on the heights of Massachusetts and Minnesota, as in the fragrant forest-meadows of South Carolina, and on the prairie-land of the far West. And that home frequently deserves the appellation which the home