Necessity of air, sunlight, and exercise. The progenitors of every
vigorous race have found in forest and wilderness the sources of
their strength. The Israelites, Greeks, Romans, Dutch, Anglo-Saxons.
The teachings of Nature essential to the development of the human
mind. Job, David, Plato, Aristotle, Christ, Wordsworth. Foot-paths
tend to bring people into the open air and into communion with
Nature. The by-ways of old England. Towns and cities should lay out
foot-paths. 84-88
CHAPTER XVIII.
WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE ROADSIDE.
Every dweller under obligation to maintain neatness and order within
and without his roadside. Unselfish exertion in this behalf pays. He
who beautifies the roadside benefits mankind and himself alike. A
dirty and shabby dwelling gives a traveller a mean idea of its
inmates. A cosey and clean house always speaks well for its inmates.
Every homestead should be adorned with trees. The beauty and utility
of trees. They are inseparable from well-tilled land and beautiful
scenery. Wayside shrubbery: its use and abuse; it should be allowed
where green grass will not grow. 89-94
CHAPTER XIX.
ENJOYMENT OF THE ROAD.
A traveller should have a hopeful and sunshiny disposition. He should
be in harmony with Nature; he should have an observing eye to enjoy
the _latent_ enjoyments of the way. How the observing faculties may be
cultivated. The pleasures incident to knowing how to appreciate the
beautiful in Nature. The different degrees of enjoyment in the same
situation. The love of Nature the sign of goodness of heart. Ruskin,
Wordsworth, Christ. What an observing traveller can see to admire and
enjoy on the road, grass, flowers, trees, as reminders of human
beings, domestic and pastoral scenery, mountains, animal and vegetable
life, sun and sunlight, latent enjoyments in himself. 95-104
THE ROAD
AND
THE ROADSIDE.
CHAPTER I.
HISTORY, IMPORTANCE, AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ROADS.
The development of the means of communication between different
communities, peoples, and races has ever been coexistent with the
progress of civilization. Lord Macaulay declares that of all
inventions, the alphabet and printing-press alone excepted, those
inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilization
of our species. Every improvement of the means of locomotion benefits
mankind morally and intellectually as well as materially.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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