tage it is not greatly important that the information is
less trustworthy than it might be. The main thing is that the village
mind should stretch itself, and look beyond the village; and this is
certainly happening. The mere material of thought, the quantity of
subjects in which curiosity may take an interest, is immeasurably
greater than it was even twenty years ago; and, if but sleepily as yet,
still the curiosity of the villagers begins to wake up. However superior
you may think yourself, you must not now approach any of the younger
labouring men in the assumption that they have not heard of the subject
you speak of. The coal-heaver, whose poverty of ideas I described
farther back, was talking to me (after that chapter was written) about
the life of coal-miners. He told of the poor wages they get for their
dangerous work; he discoursed of mining royalties, and explained some
points as to freightage and railway charges; and he was drifting towards
the subject of Trades Unions when our short walk home together came to
an end. Of course in this case the man's calling had given a direction
to his curiosity; but there are many subjects upon which the whole
village may be supposed to be getting ideas. Shackleton and the South
Pole are probably household words in most of the cottages; it may be
taken for granted that the wonders of flying machines are being eagerly
watched; it must not be taken for granted at all that the villagers are
ignorant about disease germs, and the causes of consumption, and the
spreading of plague by rats. Long after the King's visit to India, ideas
of Indian scenes will linger in the valley; and presently, when the
Panama Canal nears completion, and pictures of it begin to be given in
the papers, there will hardly be a labourer but is more or less familiar
with the main features of the work, and is more or less aware of its
immense political and commercial importance.

Thus the field of vision opens out vastly, ideas coming into it in
enough variety and abundance to begin throwing side-lights upon one
another and to illumine the whole village outlook upon life. And while
the field widens, the people are winning their way to a greater power of
surveying it intelligently; for one must notice how the newspapers,
besides giving information, encourage an acceptance of non-parochial
views. The reader of them is taken into the public confidence. Instead
of a narrow village tradition, national opinions ar