Sunshine by Donald G. Mitchell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 21, 1868

Sunshine

By Donald G. Mitchell

SUNSHINE.—The country-houses of Great Britain are by no means shaded as our own; and the most considerable piles of buildings, such as Eaton Hall, Blenheim, Dalkeith, and Burghley House, have hardly a noticeable tree within a stone’s throw of their walls. The flower-patches and coppices of shrubbery approach more nearly, and to the garden-fronts of those magnificent homes you walk through walls of blooming shrubs. But the full flow of the sunshine upon the window is a thing courted. Allowing for all difference in climate, I think there may be a question if we do not err in this country by over-much shading. A cottage in a wood is a pretty subject for poetry, but it is apt to be uncomfortably damp. And there are village streets with us so embowered that scarcely a ray of sunshine can play fairly upon the roofs or fronts of the village houses from June to October. A summer’s life under screen cannot contribute to the growth of roses in the cheeks, any more than to the growth of roses at the door. There is no provision against agues—whether moral or physical—like a good flow of sunshine.—Rural Studies, by Donald G. Mitchell.