TBANS ACTIONS. 173 



mate of the blessings of Heaven, that the greatest im- 

 provements have been made, and the human character ap- 

 peared in the fairest light. But it is in more rugged, un- 

 genial and inhospitable regions, where men, from the pres- 

 sure of numerous and urgent wants, are made, first, to feel 

 the necessity, and then to taste and enjoy the blessings of 

 labor. All past experience and all present knowledge go 

 to show that it is not on those parts of the earth where 

 production is almost spontaneous, and described by poets, 

 with not more than their usual fiction, where man treads 

 upon dust of gold, and breathes an atmosphere perfumed 

 with aromatics ; but it is into the bosom of labor and in- 

 dustry and enterprise that the Father of mankind pours 

 out the abundant fruits and productions of the earth ; and 

 beholds the greatest advances in the cultivation and im- 

 provement of the powers and faculties which he has be- 

 stowed upon them. 



Before the farmer, nature is spread out in all her grand 

 and interesting varieties. His mind embraces various 

 and diversified objects and pursuits. His judgment and 

 his faculties are called into frequent, active and vigorous 

 exercise. And in a country free as ours he acquires a 

 general feeling of manly independence, and of high self- 

 respect, from the consciousness of his being the lord of 

 the soil he cultivates. 



How great the difi"erence between the mind of such a 

 man and that of him who happens to be born in a work- 

 shop, who spends his life in the single operation of head- 

 ing a pin or pointing a needle ! While the mind of the 

 former is broad and enlarged as the earth from which he 

 derives his subsistence, that of the latter too often be- 

 comes narrowed and contracted to a sphere not broader 

 than the point of the instrument he forms and polishes. 



These reflections are not improper, and these considera- 

 tions are not to be disregarded, when we attempt to form 

 an estimate of the characters, the pursuits, and the advan- 



