476 



tie rills of science ? Let no such thoughts ever be harbored in the 

 caWns, the fields or the work-shops of Kent County, or wander through 

 her new streets. That farmer or mechanic, who is not first to encour- 

 age our schools, our academies, our colleges, our seminaries of learning, 

 must be blind to his own highest interest, or of the niggardly class of 

 raisers, of whom Pope says — 



" No silver saints, by dying misers given." 



He clings to his sordid dust to the very last. Lives through a long 

 life, and every moment of it, whether asleep or awake, his labor made 

 less, and his soil more productive by education, and do nothing to sup- 

 port it ! No ! We, the members of this Society, spurn such senti- 

 ments from our bosoms, as we would coiled double-fanged addere. "We 

 will support schools, we will have around us books and newspapers, and 

 not only keep up, but take the lead in the improvements of the age. 

 The fop and the dandy, together with all who despise us or our occu- 

 j)ation, we will pity and support as we ever have done, through the la- 

 bor of our hands. They are at least, as profitable as distilleries, though 

 they may not consume quite so much surplus grain — yet in their own 

 estimation, they fill a mighty space, and 'stand for our admonition, a 

 sample of the folly of men. 



Around our frugal boards, shall be discussed the modus operandi of 

 things past, present and future. We will improve on the past and ea- 

 gerly seize every new suggestion for the improvement of the future, so 

 that when we, who are the founders of this Society, shall have crumbled 

 into dust, and far less than two centuries in the future, that throng of 

 dense teeming myriads huddled together between the two Seas, shall 

 have made far greater improvements than have been made in the last 

 two centuries. There will then be no contention between the Yankee, 

 Dutch, crying baby, shop-keeper, and the tardy merchant, with his mil- 

 lions, about going to New York and back in six or seven days. Rail- 

 roads will be laid aside as too slow for the age, and air vessels loaded 

 with passengers and the products of our soil, will traverse the skies, pro- 

 pelled with the velocity of thought, by J. B. Lindsay's electric batterj-, 

 or some other bold genius to carry out his suggestions. The greatest 

 trouble will be in getting out and in these air vessels, but this difficulty 

 in a great measure, will have been obviated by the effect of the Maine 

 law. That generation will be bold, daring, searching in intellect, quick of 



