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and be wise to take advantage of ita conditions. To cherish it, we must 

 ever be ready to acknowledge it and obey it. Neither pride nor jeal- 

 ousy nor selfishness must be suffered to lead us away from it, or cause 

 us wantonly to violate it. It is by a good understanding and a good 

 state of feeling, that we shall cherish it. 



We take advantage of its conditions when we come to perceive, and 

 when we cavr}^ out a proper combination of means and efforts. A rail- 

 road might possibly be made by each man making a piece of it through 

 , his own lands. But a first difiiculty that would be experienced would 

 arise from the desire of each man, when a route in general had been 

 fixed upon, to bring the road through his particular domain ; for there 

 might be several possible hues in the same general route. And besides 

 this, these several individual undertakings might violate the harmony of 

 the whole, and would doubtless be a most expensive way of accomplish- 

 ing the work. Since, then, we are mutually dependent, and have a 

 common interest in view, it becomes necessary to combine our capital 

 and labor by the formation of a railroad company. Again, improve- 

 ments in agricidture, more or less, would unquestionably be made by 

 each man on his own farm conducting solitar)- experiments. But who 

 does not perceive how much more rapidly these improvements must ad- 

 vance by association, where the results of individual ex^^eriment are 

 communicated to all ; where principles and methods are discussed ;» 

 where information collected from e\ery part of the world is widely dif- 

 fused, and where public institutions are established for agricultural edu- 

 cation ? There are a thousand examples of the same nature, which will 

 at once suggest themselves to every one who bestows a moment's 

 thought upon the subject. It is association, enlightened, confidential, 

 and generous association, which carries on the great improvements of 

 the world. God has made us so dependent upon each other, that we 

 cannot work alone and be successful — we must combine our means and 

 efforts. 



A combination of means and efforts takes place under the most rigid 

 despotism. Indeed the whole power of despotism lies in its abihty ar- 

 bitrarily to accomplish this. And it cannot be denied that despotism 

 has completed the grandest and sometimes the most useful public .works. 

 It built the Pyramids of Egypt, and the Colosseum of Rome ; it has 

 also constructed the road of the Simplon over the Alps. Itbuilt Ver- 



