774 



Those pursuits which minister to raere vauity, or pleasure, or conven- 

 ience, are surely less elevated than that which furnishes the means of 

 life and crowns the earth with plenty. A calling which supplies 

 necessities arising from the violation of nature's laws, is not quite so 

 praiseworthy as that which serves those wholesonae desires which 

 spring from their harmonious action. Many a profession which now lives 

 and thrives upon human weakness and human folly would become obso- 

 1 lete, if all men were wise, while the prosperity of others would increase in 

 a similar ratio. Universal wisdom and goodness would consign the learned 

 professions to the grave of oblivion, while the perfection in intelligence 

 and morals that would follow would make every fai-m a paradise, and 

 cause the "desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose." Fortunate is 

 h© whose business improves in proportion as society advances in all that 

 is excellent. Thrice happy he whose prosperity depends not upon the 

 vi<5es and maladies of mankind. Luxury and prodigality fill the mer- 

 chant's coffers; the prevalence of moral disorder and dishonesty, profits 

 and stimulates the drudgery of the lawyer ; grim disease gives to the 

 doctor, day by day, his daily bread; but the farmer would stand on 

 the pinnacle of thrift if vice, dishonesty, and disease were banished 

 from the earth. 



The agriculturist, farther, may regard, with feelings of just satisfac- 

 tion, the intrinsic value of the products of his labor. Every commodity 

 which industry creates, has either a real value, based upon qualities in- 

 i Iierent in itself, or an estimated value, depending upon ]>ublic opinion 

 oc fsishion. Intrinsic value in an object lies in its actual utility in 

 answering the demands of nature, and contributing to the comforts 

 of life. Estimated^ value rests mainly in its power to gratify the lust 

 of the eye or the pride of life. The latter is always inconstant and 

 fluctuatino': the former invariable and fixed. Objects of estimated 

 Talue have their forgeries and false imitations, for all is not gold that 

 fflitters, nor is everything a gem that sparkles in the sunbeam. Objects 

 of intrinsic value have their representatives in current coin, but never 

 tiieir'counterfeits, for wheat and corn, and whatever commodity labor 

 extracts from the earth, can never be bogus. We need no printed de- 

 tector to determine the genuine article. The one supplies our real 

 wants, the other those which are fictitious and fancied. One loaf of 



