264 



by gestures of haughty impatience, or the exhibition of shame at being 

 seen in converse with a son of industry. 



But, in order to realize the actual intention and true beauty of repub- 

 lican life, attention should be given towards intellectually equalizing the 

 society of free government, and elevating our whole people from follies 

 on the one hand and ignorance on the other. Education is the medium 

 through which to cultivate, as nearly as possible, such equality; and al- 

 though it cannot be expected that those who devote the most of their 

 time to labor, and in retirement require relaxation and rest, can ever 

 equal in learning those whose time is mostly spent in the improvement 

 of the intellect, yet the general mind of the people, disciplined and 

 stored so far as practicable, would operate in the two-fold manner of 

 rendering individual intercourse profitable and interesting, and giving, 

 in the aggregate, a character to our nation for intelligence and virtue, in 

 accordance with the orisinal desion of our institutions. 



The human mind is wonderfully susceptible of* cultivation. It re- 

 quires not merely that books should be kept constantly before it — over 

 the plow and over the anvil, the exercise of memory and thought wiU 

 strengthen and enlarge it, and render it still more and more keenly sus- 

 ceptible. Man is made after God's own image, and it is but in the ac- 

 cumulation of knowledge and the enlargement of his miad that he may 

 approximate to the Divine likeness. 



In forming, then, societies such as yours, for the promotion of the 

 difiBrent departments of labor, it would be useful to bestow attention to 

 the improvement of the mind, and incorporate it as a component part 

 of the system. It is not, and should not be, a mere emulation between 

 for instance, the States of Michigan and Ohio, as to which can produce 

 the best and most from an acre, or commit to the best advantage the 

 '■^hlacJcest ingratitude^'' according to Petronius Arbiter, in making the 

 finest coat from the wool of a sheep, and afterwards dining on his car- 

 cass. But your aim should be also to advance the character of your 

 country, dignify labor, and secure the greatest degree of happiness to 

 your countrymen. The system of '■^ prize essays^'' among others, is ad- 

 mirably calculated to encourage observation, and to lead to the exercise 

 of thought, as to the best means of advancing the art of agriculture 

 in all its branches, and to habituate man to look beyond the mere cul- 

 ture of the field and the raising of stock to those higher attributes of 



