State Agricultural Society. 107 



ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



On Friday evening, September twentieth, the annual address to 

 the State Agricultural Society was delivered in tiie Assembly 

 Chamber, by the Honorable James McNf. Shafter, of Marin County. 

 The Assembly Chamber was nearly filled by an appreciative audi- 

 ence, which represented all of the best elements of society. At eight 

 o'clock President Boruck entered, accompanied by Postmaster-Gen- 

 eral Kev, Governor Irwin, Superintendent Bryte, Director Flint, 

 W. C. Hopping, Wni. II. Mills, F. A. Hornblower, and S. T. Gage. 

 Before taking his seat to preside over the meeting President Boruck 

 said : 



Ladies and Gentlemen: I have the honor and the pleasure of 

 introducing to you the Honorable James McM. Shaffer, of Marin 

 County, who will now deliver the annual address before the State 

 Agricultural Society of California. 



Mr. Shaffer was received with applause, and then spoke as follows: 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: The relations of man 

 to the visible and invisible world have been in all time subjects of 

 the most painful anxiety, the most profound thought, and as to some 

 most material considerations, with the result of simple conjecture. 



As to the body, we know that is of the earth earthy ; He made man 

 of the dust of the earth. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, correctly state 

 the origin, nature, and destiny of our physical being. But as to the 

 liuman soul,. there has never been any uniformity of belief. The 

 theory of a personal God, and in man a created soul, has been con- 

 fronted with that of an all-pervading intellect and power without 

 l)ersonality, and an absorption of a portion of that intellect by the 

 individual man. This conflict of opinion is of very ancient date; it 

 came through and agitated for some centuries the Cliristian Church, 

 and is again revived by the scientists of our time. 



We have no occasion to speak of the merits of this controversy. 

 Tt is enough, for the present inirpo.se, to say in the language of a 

 recent writer, that as to the beliefs of a universal force, and that an 

 emanation from it constitutes the human soul, "it is to be borne in 

 mind that those opinions are held to be true by a majority of the 

 liuman race." I speak of thoi^o theories for the purpose of showing 

 that, in all times, recognizing the fact that his body is formed and 

 composed of the same elements as the air, the grass, and the insensate 

 stones, and liaving run its course shall return to its original elements, 

 man has always struggled in his beliefs to connect his soul, in its 

 origin, nature, ofhce, and end, with the universe it inhabits. With- 

 out arts or civilization men made themselves a part of the universe. 

 The glory of the heavens was theirs, with all their newness. With- 

 out knowledge they wandered entranced in peace, and wondered at 

 the new creation. They saw they were subjected to the control of 

 invisible forces, and their emotions became so strongly excited as to 



