Distant Fields are Greener.

I like these old sayings. In the impatience of youth one can condemn them as a clutter of clichés, but with increase in experience one modifies one's attitude, accepts them first with tolerance, and later greets them with a warm feeling as expressions of (he homely wisdom of past generations, almost a handclasp from those who have lived, weighing life and testing it against their changing philosophy, even as we are doing.

“Distant fields are greener.” Of course they are. The cracks, the patches of dull earth, the yellowishbrown of dying plants are unseen in the general emerald effect. The larger vision is the truer one. The more we can comprehend, the better can we judge.

Unfortunately, we are so placed in our own lives that it is difficult to obtain that comprehensive view. We are so surrounded by the cracks, the bare patches, that often we do not realize the verdure of our state. Instead of enjoying the healthy growths we are absorbed in the barren places.

The farmer who wishes to improve his pastures uses the scientific knowledge of the pasture specialist and the “bug” hunter. The experts have studied at close range the faulty growths, and delved for tire insects which batten on grass roots, but although the scientists have their attention fixed on a few inches of pasture, they arc aiming at the improvement of the pastoral industry of the world.

Even if we do fix our attention on the unsatisfactory places in our lives, it should be only to find out why they are barren. Our main interest is the encouragement of the healthy growths, the live interests which can eliminate the bare spots.

The students of the social sciences may be compared with the pasture experts in that their aim is to improve the living conditions of their fellow humans. We employ doctors and psychologists in the endeavour to keep our individual bodies and minds healthy, and the administrators, with their staffs of experts in various fields, to provide a suitable environment for those minds and bodies.

Whenever one reads the phrase “distant fields” one is jolted afresh into realizing the adequacy of one's own life. There is enough verdure in it to make the bare patches negligible; enough, with cultivation, to overgrow almost all the unsatisfactory bits. It all depends on what sort of a cultivator one is, on how much energy and enthusiasm one. brings to the task