MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 33 



and apostles, of God's impartial and unchanging providence. And 

 how many would be sad, and feel that the joy of the fields and the 

 woods had departed, that some dark-winged fiend had touched with 

 his wand, all the haunts of the orchards and the gardens, if the 

 sparrows should never sing again near their homes, if the bobolinks 

 should never again sprinkle the air with their merry notes, if for- 

 ever, henceforth, all the harmony of the ten thousand feathered 

 songsters, should be absent from their homes. There never was a 

 paradise without the birds. 



The center of the farm, with reference to which all other parts 

 ought to be disposed, cultivated and adorned, and out from which 

 all good influences ought to flow to consecrate and hallow the other 

 parts, is the house. It may be a cottage, or a mansion ; it may be 

 expensive or an unexpensive abode, according to the circvimstances of 

 the occupants. As I have already said : it should be a pleasant 

 home, pleasant for situation, pleasant for accommodations and conven- 

 iencies, pleasant for all its interior arrangements, and pleasant for 

 all its surroundings, and for its decorations, without. But the great 

 thing to be desired, is, that the power presiding in this dwelling, be 

 wise, and noble, and benignant This is the place where the wife, 

 the mother, is enthroned ; where she gives form, and complexion to 

 the moral life of the farm, and by her influence determines whether 

 her family shall live in gloom and discontent, or in sunshine and 

 enjoyment.^ IIow needful it is, that she should be endowed here, 

 with the highest and finest qualities, that her views of life should be 

 comprehensive and cheerful, and that she should use her influence 

 to effijct the best and happiest results. Let her prove to the world, 

 that the farm-house, is not, of necessity, the least furnished of all the 

 abodes of the world, with those particulars of comfort, wisdom and 

 beauty which make a home admirable. Let her present the evidence, 

 in the consequences of her own forethought, endeavor and perseve- 

 rence, that the farmer's home is the model home, and the best nursery 

 of the State or the Nation, 



It is not, or need not be, the doom of those who are brought up 

 under the influence of the farm-house, to be cut off" from those priv- 

 ileges and pleasures which make other homes attractive and agree- 

 able. While they perform those several tasks which devolve upon 

 them in their sphere, they may also engage in those useful studies, 

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