WEST OXFORD SOCIETY. 191 



can learn from books or from your neighbors, ■will prevent you from 

 doing a thousand little things of Avhich you will afterwards be 

 ashamed. The man wiih a witch-hazle rod will not be consulted to 

 locate a well, nor the charmer to draw out the rheumatism from 

 your shoulder, nor will you look to the moon to see when you should 

 sow your peas to avoid the pea-bug, or to kill your pork for fear of 

 shrinkage. Poor farming will always make pork shrink ; good 

 farming, with a plenty of corn-mcjl, never. A thousand foolish 

 notions have been swept away from the minds of farmers, by the 

 light of science, and every improvement in agriculture is now 

 eagerly sought after. A very little science will teach any man tliat 

 oats Avill not become barley, nor barley oats. Nor will you lie 

 foolish enough to procure the services of the most ignorant man in 

 town to cure your sick cow by pressing down her throat cold salts 

 by the quart, or putting a quid of tobacco into a fresh wound to heal 

 it, any more than you would, as I have known elsewhere to be done, 

 employ the man whose intellect is so weak that you would not rely 

 on his judgment to appraise the value of a pig, to doctor your sick 

 child merely because he accidentally found something in the woods 

 that would operate as an emetic. Cows may give bloody milk if 

 you kill a swallow, and they will give bloody milk sometimes if you 

 do not kill one. Some member of a family may die before the year 

 is out if you kill a fish-hawk, and they may die if you do not kill 

 one. Eclipses of the sun or moon will not now frighten farmers 

 with the idea of cold seasons, nor, should a comet suddenly make its 

 appearance, would you fear from the impositions of those who sup- 

 pose that all wisdom and power are locked up in their hands. 



Such ideas as were once prevalent, I need not try to refute before 

 an intelligent audience as the present, and I only allude to them 

 that you may be reminded, by a comparison with the past, of the 

 progressive condition of society, and place yourselves in the best 

 possible position for still greater improvement. 



It is said that the Jews were always unwilling to step on a piece 

 of paper lest the name of God should be written upon it, but, gen- 

 tlemen, you are at every step treading upon more of his laws than 

 have ever been written. It has been said by a distinguished man, 

 that if the human hand be spread on any spot on earth, there is 

 enough beneath it to occupy the attention of the most scientific man 



