Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/433

 but destructive hail storms and the danger of inundations, and so on.

I asked the schoolmaster whether it was not true what we frequently heard of the famous Swiss' homesickness, that those born and reared in these mountains could not be satisfied or happy elsewhere, and if forced to live in foreign parts, were consumed by a morbid longing for their mountain home. The schoolmaster smiled again and thought such cases of homesickness did occur among the Swiss, but not in larger number nor with greater force than with the inhabitants of other regions. Everywhere he supposed there might be people that adhere to the habits and conditions of life of their homes with a warm and even morbid attachment. But he knew also of a large number of Swiss who in foreign countries, even on the flat prairies of America, had settled down and felt themselves well satisfied there.

“Am I to understand from you,” I asked, “that as a rule the Swiss himself does not appreciate the beauty of his country?”

“No, not that,” answered the schoolmaster; “the more educated people know everywhere how to appreciate the beautiful because of its beauty; but the laboring man, who here is always engaged in a struggle with nature, must be told that the things which are to him so often troublesome and disagreeable, are also grand and beautiful. When his thought has once been directed to that idea, he will more and more familiarize himself with it, and the Swiss,” added the schoolmaster with a sly smile, “also the uneducated Swiss, have now learned to appreciate the beauty of their country very highly.”

This sounded to me at first like a very prosaic philosophy, but as I thought about it, I concluded that the schoolmaster was right. The perception of natural beauty is not primitive,