Just before the First World War destroyed a generation and divided Europe for almost a century, a farmer in a remote part of Aberdeenshire sat down at the age forty-three to write his thoughts on how to live a good life. Mitchell had a clear, fresh and effective prose style in Standard English, and was well placed to record the values of his time and his individual take on them. His is now a voice from the past that demands our attention, not necessarily to emulate it but to encourage us to consider what we have lost and what we have gained. The main casualty of the coming war would be an optimism we have never properly regained.