56 MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 



animal or vegetable life. He should study animal and vegetable 

 physiology, as the mechanic studies the character of steam or the 

 laws of gravitation — not that he may promulgate new and learned 

 theories, but that he may construct his machine to take advantage 

 of these powers. He should measure up the results in bags, or 

 weigh them out in pounds to the butcher. 



He should study astronomy so far as necessary to his calling or 

 the natural relations of life, and leave the rest to the hunters of new 

 stars at Cambridge. He should study political economy enough to 

 satisfy him whether " ad-valorem duties " were more important than 

 the great duties of Christianity, or would operate upon his own 

 interests favorably or unfavorably ; — and politics, to be able to tell 

 — what many learned men seem not to know — whether corn and 

 potatoes flourish as well under a democratic as a whig administra- 

 tion. Beyond this, on this last point, he might as well remain in 

 all the ignorance that characterizes many noisy politicians, as to 

 take the highest degrees in the modern political schools. 



We are aware that this plan of educating the farmer, merely as a 

 farmer, may hardly give him confidence to regard himself as stand- 

 ing among educated men. But we ask him, is the physician educa- 

 ted in theology ? — or the lawyer in medicine ?-— or the clergyman in 

 civil law ? And yet we have our learned ministers, and lawyers 

 and doctors. Can Henry Ward Beecher solve the deeper questions 

 of mathematics ? — or George Evans rehearse the Westminster cata- 

 chism? — or the learned Dr. Malcom tell. you how many grains of 

 mercury it takes to make a dose of blue pills ? — or, indeed, can all 

 these learned men together inform the young farmer how many 

 bushels of oats he should sow to the acre ? Still we do not doubt 

 that they are learned men. Each is learned — educated — in his own 

 particular calling, but not necessarily in any other. 



Is it not as much a part of education to be able to tell how much 

 gypsum may be judiciously applied to a particular soil, or what 

 kind of manure is best adapted to nourish particular crops, as to 

 know how many grains of opium will put a man asleep, or how 

 many drops of prussic acid will kill a dog ? Is it not as much a 

 part of education to understand the constitutions and diseases of 

 animals as of men? Tru-e, one concerns only dollars and cents, 

 while the other invo^.ves human life ; but otherwise, science is oi^ 



