No. 112.] 525 



ed all that was useful without one single trace of that beauty 

 which enshrouds theai j but God in his goodness has made them 

 otherwise, that they might be ministers in his hands to purify our 

 hearts. Show me a man whose soul is dead to the sentiment of 

 beauty, who feels no joy in communing with nature, who toils on 

 without once turning his thoughts to the contemplation of what 

 is around and above him, and you will show me a man, sordid, 

 mean, and selfish. He may possess the faculty for acquiring dol- 

 lars and cents, but he will be dead to every holy and lofty trait 

 of humanity. To the inhabitauts ot the rural districts then we 

 would say, cultivate the sentiment of beauty, adorn your dwellings 

 with such emblems of rural taste and rural art as may be within 

 your means ; they will tend to make home happy to yourselves 

 and to your children, they will tend to refine the feelings, elevate 

 the affections, and purify the heart, and they will minister to a 

 high and holy patriotism ; for what is there that a man looks back 

 to from the scenes of struggling life with purer and holier feelings 

 than the happy home of his childhood. Rural life, peaceful and 

 happy, free from the corroding cares and anxieties of trade and 

 commerce, free from the harrassing toils of professional life, con- 

 ducive initself to virtue and religion, containing in itself the germ 

 of usefulness that gives an impulse to all other modes of life ; 

 shall we not strive to elevate it to the high position to which its 

 merits entitle it? How shall it be done, I answer in the words of 

 Lord Bacon " knowledge is power j" knowledge may be acquired 

 amid many difficulties and just in proportion to the amount of our 

 knowledge will we gain power to triumph over the physical dif- 

 ficulties that lie in our path. We who live amid the works of 

 nature should pa^=s notliing unlieeded by. Tliere is no plant but 

 botany has classed it somewhere, there is no stone Bo rude and 

 rough that geology has not exhibited its use. No combination of 

 earth, but chemistry lias been able to analize. No change in the 

 changeable elements but one day meteorology may be able to fath- 

 om. Let us train our minds then to habits of thouiiht and rcfiec- 

 tion,tliey will not interfere with, but will lend, a deep enduring 

 pleasure to cur calling; and no merchant prince or wealthy pro- 

 fessional miin, surroundeel by the luxuries of other laiuls, and 

 reposing in cushioned ease on downy j-illows, shall be happier 



