STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 309 



store his memory, regale his imagination, elevate his aims, strengthen 

 his principles, and in short make him a wiser, truer, better man. The 

 chief end of every vocation should be the fullest, ripest manhood of all 

 who are engaged in it; and just so far as it fails to secure this result 

 it becomes a drag upon the highest energies of the soul. It is not age 

 that makes the man. You may find some men that stand six feet high, 

 with broad shoulders, looking down into a well of memory forty or fifty 

 years deep, that are mere boobies. They are men only in avoirdupois. 



" We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; 

 In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 

 We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives 

 Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 



We come to manhood only in the comprehension, development and 

 maturity of all the faculties we possess. To attain that perfection of 

 our powers should be the aim of our life, and every calling and pur- 

 suit should be made as far as possible to contribute to that end. The 

 soul possesses " the powers of an endless life." This world is its first 

 school to educate those powers. Every calling you pursue is to some 

 extent a teacher in this school; and if the farmer, the trader, the arti- 

 san, the phj-sician, the lawyer and the minister has not been made truer, 

 nobler, stronger by his vocation, then his life has been a lamentable 

 failure. JSTow, the life of the farmer and dwellers in the rural districts, 

 it seems to me. are peculiarly fitted to produce a broad and generous 

 development of some of the most noble and sterling qualities of man- 

 hood. I am sure, at least, that their condition has been too greatly 

 underrated and restricted. 



Allow me to call you attention to some elements of a noble manhood 

 that country life and agricultural pursuits may help to foster. 



The first element of manhood I name, is physical health and manly 

 vigor. We cannot too highly value bodily energy, a robust constitution, 

 good digestion, steady nerves and strong, tough thews. They are as 

 essential to a well developed manhood as a deep, solid foundation is to 

 the stability of a building. The soul carries the body as the tree its 

 bark or the snail its shell, and so long as this marriage of matter and 

 mind continues, they are practically one, and must naturally bear each 

 other's infirmities. Like the Siamese twins, they breathe and walk 

 simultaneously, and one cannot take a spree and the other keep sober. 

 Hence, the trite law of Juvenal, "a sound mind in a sound body" can- 

 not be despised by any one who wishes to realize his fullest powers. 

 You must possess physical health in order to be intellectually and 

 spiritually well. The heart must pulsate rythmically in order to feel 

 happy. A bilious condition makes an atrobilious temper. Peccant 

 humors in the blood fills the mind with all kinds of dismal fogs and 

 vapors. Without good health and bodily vigor, fine talents, the inspira- 

 tion of genius, refined tastes and a bountiful supply of wit and humor 

 only intensifies one's misery by making him conscious of powers he dare 

 not fully exert. Now, it is happily the lot of the farmer to follow a 

 calling that, perhaps more than any other, furnishes that desirable 

 element of manhood, good health and a bountiful supply of physical 

 vigor. All manual toil tends to develop the body but not all in equal 

 proportion. Some only call into exercise a certain set of faculties, such 

 as the eye, the ear, the touch, and hence the physical benefits are partial, 

 Some exert deleterious influence and tend to shorten life. Thus, our 

 life tables show that printers, mechanics, painters, tailors and shoemakers 



