671 



Who would have our commerce carried on by means of bulky, awk- 

 ward vessels, miscalled ships, rolling this way and that, and with diffi- 

 culty kept from sinking, instead of by those noble cutters and yachts 

 and steamships, in each of which American science has taken the palm 

 from all the world. But this is due to science. 



And now I ask, shall science, in other words knowledge and study, 

 systemized, enable our free countrymen to equal and surpass all other 

 nations in these departments of industry, and shall she not shed any 

 light upon our practice of tilling the earth ? Shall we continue to plow 

 and sow and reap and raise stock, just precisely as men did when they 

 rode on carts without springs, sailed in ships built in defiance of the 

 laws of navigation, wore home-spun clothing, and when the power of 

 steam and the usefulness of the telegraph were unknown ? Such men 

 there may be, but they are not' only behind the age, but deficient in 

 sound sense ; they are at least semi-idiots. And let not any that have 

 cultivated minds, that can speak or write so as to claim the attention of 

 their fellow men, so prostitute the intellect which God has given them 

 as to advocate a sentiment so false and absurd and disgraceful, both to 

 him that utters it and him who patiently listens. The most contempt- 

 ible specimen of American character is a demagogue, a man who will 

 flatter, fawn and he, to get the good will of the people ; and the most 

 contemptible specimen of this most contemptible class, below which 

 there is no lower depth of apes in human shape, are those who will get 

 about them an ignorant audience, and flatter them for their ignorance, 

 and declaim against science and scientific men. 



An old writer has well said, " It is indeed no small satisfaction to 

 think, that whoever attacks learning, if he does it weakly, does it no 

 harm ; and if he does it well, his own performance is a good argument 

 against him, while he shows thereby its usefulness as well as his own 

 ingratitude." 



Agriculture has improved by science, and must and will improve 

 much more. Land is capable of supporting many more inhabitants, 

 and of yielding much more, both of sustenance and profit. The only 

 question is, shall this improvement be' brought about by a very few, 

 and many of these not practical farmers, and thus shall the progress be 

 ,slow and uncertain; or shall this great body of agriculturists be studi- 

 'Ous and enterprising, and thus from their combined energy and experi- 



