CHAPTER VI
OUR DOMESTIC FUTURE
As the afternoon made progress, the light haze that had tended to obscure the details of the landscape began to thin and lift. For miles every house and roof stood revealed in clearer outline, wherever an angle could meet the eye in that close forestry. As they advanced more definitely into view, they, the homes of the people, could not fail to carry their own special suggestion and to impart their own significance. They prompted the thought that England, having become free, and having utilised that freedom in industry, was in turn employing the resources thus created to build the home, breed the family, strengthen the race, guarantee the future. The care of the race, or, if the term may be used, racialism that, after freedom and industrialism, is the next watchword of the coming time. Hitherto, our zeal for the goodness of the English stock, our study of the native breed, our thought for the child and the woman, have been backward and amiss. Alike in the country and the town we witness the bad result of past negligence and want of knowledge. This must be so no longer, or else our whole future
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