In the latter we find more sleek prosperity side
by side with greater degeneracy of morals, than in the former. The
inhabitant of the woodland villages is often very poor, but the
discontented proletarian dwells far more frequently in the villages of
the plain. The latter is more important in an economic sense, the former
in a social-political one. The forest peasant is rougher, more
quarrelsome, but also merrier than the peasant of the field; the former
often turns out a genial rascal, when the dull peasant of the field in
like case would have turned into a heartless miser. The preservation or
the extinction of ancient popular customs and costumes does not depend
so much on the contrast between mountainous-country and flat-country as
on that between the woodland and the field, if one includes in the
former the heaths, moors, and other wild regions. The forest is the home
of national art; the forest peasant still continues through many
generations to sing his peculiar song along with the birds of the woods,
when the neighboring villager of the plain has long ago entirely
forgotten the folk-song. A village without woods is like a city without
historical buildings, without monuments, without art-collections,
without theatres and music--in short, without emotional or artistic
stimulation. The forest is the gymnasium of youth and often the
banqueting hall of the aged.
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