524 [Assembly 



each rock, each boulder, that else had been unsightly things, be- 

 come objects of the deepest interest. Where shall we go to study 

 out its hidden wonders ? To« the granite mountains, to the coal 

 deposites, to the vast regions of the tall ferns, now locked in the 

 ice of the frozen north and bound by the torpor of death, but 

 showing signs of a life once active as that of the torrid zone. 

 What a field for thought does it present to the mind. Those 

 • granite rocks upheaved from the depths of the earth ; those 

 coal deposites once miles of dense forests, now condensed by heat 

 and pressure into a more concentrated form for the convenience 

 and benefit of man. Yes, the examination of all these great truths 

 belongs to rural life, for amid the duties of that life we are 

 brought in constant contact with them. 



And Poetry too — Wliere shall we go for food for the poet's soul, 

 but amid the wide expanse of nature. From what did Bunis, the 

 plow boy poet, draw his sweetest strains, but from the scenes of 

 rural life. And the noblest, the most sublime passages of Byron 

 owe their orign to the cloud capped mountains and lovely lakes 

 of Switzerland. There he caught the echo of the distant thunder, 

 there he saw the sunbeam gild the gentle wave, there he listened 

 to the insect tribes chirping their notes that broke with pensive- 

 ness upon the bright, clear evening air. Yes, there hecaughtthat 

 inspiration that breathed itself forth in those pages of Childe 

 Harold that will live when every other memory of its author 

 shall be buried in oblivion — the knowledge and perception of the 

 beautiful in nature and in art. The world around us teems with 

 beauty and our creator has placed within us a sentiment capal^le 

 of responding to that beauty. The utilitarian asks why should 

 we trouble ourselves about what is not strictly useful in its most 

 practical sense 1 we answer ; God has made " every thing beauti- ' 

 ful in its time," and this is no weak argument for the cultivation 

 of the beautiful. Look abroad over the wide field of nature, a 

 thousand varied shades blend in exquisite harmony over the 

 mountain's brow and the lovely valley. Mark their sweet flowers 

 with the rich colorirg — see the tints of gold, vermilion, crim>:on, 

 purple, that clothe the world of vegetables and of fruit. The rose, 

 could have been made to smell as sweet wrapped in a dress of 

 somber hue, and fruit and flower 'every where might have present- 



