ti XX PREFACE TO quiet scenes of home enjoyment into what the poet calls " a lenten entertain- ment ?" Home is at once the scene of repose and of activity. A county gentleman of rank and fortune is the sun of a little system, the movements of which his in- fluence controls. It is at home that he feels his real importance, his usefulness, and his dignity. Each diminishes in pro- portion to the distance lie wanders f'rom his proper orbit. The old English gentry kept up the reverence and secured the attachment of their dependants by living amono. them. Personal affection was maintained by the presence of the bene- factor. Subordination had a visible head. Whereas obedience to a master they do not see savours too much ofallegiance to a foreign power. We, know that the Roman hero, who transgressed the boundaries of his own province by once crossing the Rubicon, changed the whole condition, circum- stances, constitution, and character of
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