PISCATAQUIS CENTRAL SOCIETY. 327 



Farmers of Piscataqnis. — You have a noblo heritage in this 

 beautiful valley, lich in all the resources of comfort, contentment 

 and peace. No substantial blessing is withheld. Other counties 

 may in some respects present superior advantages, but it is more 

 than probable that the excess of advantages over your own, in those 

 places pointed out as possessing " superior attractions," and as de- 

 sirable to emigrate to, is cancelled by disadvantages that detract 

 much from the pleasure of life. Nature is impartial in the diffusion 

 of her favors. Her law of compensation is enforced throughout the 

 universe, and by it, where she withholds of one blessing she gives 

 of another. And it is better, when, in a spirit of discontent, you 

 compute the blessings withholden, to balance the account by bless- 

 ings given ; and when contemplating a beautiful prospect afar off, it 

 is well, under the application of the rule which the poet has im- 

 mortalized : 



" 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view," 



to make such abatements from the pictures of fancy, the reports of 

 rumor, or the representations of selfish and partizan interests, as 

 shall mahe them square with the details of sober fact. Experience 

 usually confirms the homely truth, that blessings " far-fetched are 

 dear bought," and will dispose one to develop the resources at hand, 

 and to avail one's self of the present opportunity and the present 



hour. 



" The Present, the Present is ail thou hast 



For thy sure possessing ; 

 Like the patriarch's angel, hold it fixst 



Till it gives its blessing," 



and not indolently await the vicissitudes and fortuitous events of 

 time, nor vagrantly wander afar off, for an improvement of your 

 condition and prospects. 



While rumor has been busy with reports of fortunes made in a 

 single hour in the western country, some of you may have been 

 impatient at your slow gains, and the tardy revolutions of the wheel 

 of fortune. But the western bubble has burst. Fortunes made on 

 paper, representing no real wealth, with no substantial interests 

 underlying it, have suddenly vanished — dissipated into thin air, and 

 a commercial panic has seized with terror the business interests of 

 nearly the whole community. The wild and visionary schemes of 



