_Of the New Village, and the New Country Community, as
Distinct from the Village_
This is a year of bumper crops, of harvesting festivals.
Through the mists of the happy waning year, a new village
rises, and the new country community, in visions revealed to
the rejoicing heart of faith.
And yet it needs no vision to see them. Walking across this
land I have found them, little ganglions of life, promise of
thousands more. The next generation will be that of the
eminent village. The son of the farmer will be no longer
dazzled and destroyed by the fires of the metropolis. He will
travel, but only for what he can bring back. Just as his
father sends half-way across the continent for good corn, or
melon-seed, so he will make his village famous by
transplanting and growing this idea or that. He will make it
known for its pottery or its processions, its philosophy or
its peacocks, its music or its swans, its golden roofs or its
great union cathedral of all faiths. There are a thousand
miscellaneous achievements within the scope of the
great-hearted village. Our agricultural land to-day holds the
ploughboys who will bring these benefits. I have talked to
these boys. I know them. I have seen their gleaming eyes.
And the lonely country neighborhood, as distinct from the
village, shall make itself famous. There are river valleys
that will be known all over the land for their tall men and
their milk-white maidens, as now for their well-bred horses.
There are mountain lands that shall cultivate the tree of
knowledge, as well as the apple-tree. There are sandy tracts
that shall constantly ripen red and golden citrus fruit, but
as well, philosophers comforting as the moon, and
strength-giving as the sun.
These communities shall have their proud circles. They shall
have families joined hand in hand, to the end that new blood
and new thoughts be constantly brought in, and no good force
or leaven be lost. The country community shall awaken
illustrious. This by faith, and a study of the signs, we
proclaim!