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cities, whicli forms one of the peculiar social phenomena of the present 

 day. We cannot hope that others will respect us unless we respect our- 

 selves ; and till we look upon agriculture, not as a business, fit only for. 

 those incapable of success in any other work, but as one of the most no- 

 ble, most independent, or intrinsically most intellectual, we can neither 

 expect to take our proper position in the world, nor make our influeuce 

 felt as it deserves to be. On this I speak advisedly. It has been my 

 lot to see and live among all classes of society. In cities, men dres^ 

 better, but they do not live better ; they have more amusements but 

 fewer recreations ; they have more small talk, but less thought and orig- 

 inality ; if any individual rises to eminence and fortune, he works far 

 harder and runs far greater risks than any farmer is called upon to do ; 

 and, depending on favor for custom or business, men in large cities lose 

 their independence of character, and are too often either obliged to swim 

 with the current or adapt themselves to the fancies of others. In the 

 city there is weariness, monotony, and constant change ; how few old 

 inhabitants of cities do not long for the time when they may leave their 

 offices and the endless streets, and spend the latter portion of their life 

 in the bosom of the country. The love of the green fields, and of Na- 

 ture, is the last feeling that fades, the last passion of poetry that expires 

 in the hearts of city men ; while in country life, all is quiet, peaceful, 

 and enjoying, leaving little to desire and less to crave after. 



'Tis man's worse deed 



To let the things that have been, run to waste, 

 And in the unmeaning present sink tlie past. 



It is said, and I believe truly, that there is not an instance in the United 

 States, of an individual becoming really great and leaving a strong im- 

 pression on his generation, who was born and lived in a lai-ge city. It 

 is the country which has given birth and vigor to all our great men, 

 wherever, for convenience, their after lives may have been passed. In 

 this country we have only one standard of true respectability, and that 

 is doing our duty faithfully to God and man in the station in which our 

 lot is cast. It is not money, it is not luxury, it is not dress or polished 

 manners that makes the gentleman — these are the accidents of life. It 

 is honesty, intelligence, kindness of heart, refinement of taste and feeling, 

 and freedom from vice, which alone we should recognize as worthy our 

 pursuits in republican America. I must confess, that I never see an 

 open-hearted boy, as yet unspotted by the world, vigorous in health, and 



