MAINE STATE SOCIETY. JQ 



Ssberman, a whole season's time, and all his little fortune. All 

 those who are exposed, in their business relations, to the fluctua* 

 tions, and the reverses of the world of commerce and speculation, or 

 whose fortunes whatever they may bo, are at the mercy of the winds 

 and the waves, or liable to be burned to ashes in a village or city 

 conflagration, can never be free from the sense of insecurity. But 

 for the farmer, there is comparative security or peace. His build- 

 ings may burn, and his money may be in some way taken from him, 

 but his acres will remain to him, and support him. If he have 

 health, and the disposition to till his farm, these will be the foun- 

 dation for a new superstructure of wealth, comfort and independence. 

 And then as to the dignity, the joys, the serenity and the repose of 

 his life, why, you cannot find their counterparts, as general things, 

 in any other kind of secular, or business life. The dignity of the 

 farmer, contains the elements of intelligence, of self-respect, of love 

 for his occupation, of reverence for labor, and of a hearty and 

 admiring appreciation of all the objects, events and attractions of his 

 situation. His enjoyments are occasioned by the beneficent and ra- 

 diant spirit which comes to his heart, which penetrates and pervades 

 his soul, as an inflowing life, from all the surroundings of nature, 

 from the hills, and valleys, and trees, and plants, and flowers of the 

 earth, and from the sun and moon, and the countless stars of the 

 over-arching sky. He can be a being of light and joy, if he have 

 an eye to take in the glory which the Creator reveals in his handi- 

 works, in the manifold eflects and movements of the outward universe 

 within his vision, and an ear to catch and hold the rich harmonies 

 which come to him perpetually from flowing waters, and circulating 

 winds, and fluttering leaves, and stirring grain, and chanting birds,, 

 and piping insects. 



I cannot imagine why a farmer ought not to be one of the most 

 intelligent of men, or why he ought not to make himself the possessor 

 of all those qualities which form the noblest character, or why his 

 eye should be dim, or his ear deaf, to what, in numberless forms, or 

 in the sublimest and most enchanting modes, are brought to him and 

 drawn about him every day, I know that you may find many 

 farmers who have not tried to grow in wisdom and knowledge, who 

 ,have sneered at the lessons of science, which are so important and 

 useful in their applications to agriculture, who have no taste for that 



