196 NORTH KENNEBEC SOCIETY. 



bago, leather, wool, glass, pottery, and brick, — to bees and silk 

 wornas, — and by their steady combinations they succeed. A 

 manufacturer sits down to dinner in a suit of clothes which was 

 wool on a sheep's back at sunrise. You dine with a gentleman 

 on venison, pheasant, quail, pigeons, poultry, mushrooms, and 

 pine apples, all the growth of his estate. They are neat hus- 

 bands for ordering all their tools pertaining to the house and 

 field. All are well kept. There is no want and no waste. 

 They study use and fitness in their building, in the order of 

 their dwellings, and in their dress. The Frenchman invented 

 the ruffle, the Englishman added the shirt. The Englishman 

 wears a sensible coat buttoned to the chin, of rough but solid 

 and lasting texture. If he is a lord, he dresses a little worse 

 than a commoner. They have diff"used the taste for plain sub- 

 stantial hats, shoes, and coats through Europe. They think 

 him tlie best dressed man, whose dress is so fit for his use that 

 you cannot notice or remember to describe it." 



All this is but a scrap of what is told of this wonderful peo- 

 ple ; but this will suffice to assure ns that the true policy for us 

 to pursue, is to set a proper value on our own means and 

 resources, to stick to our old towns, and our old acres, with 

 deep and fervid affection, and to persevere through all obstruc- 

 tions to the highest ends we see or desire. 



I now come to consider your disposition to present, in your 

 works, the useful and the beautiful in blended harmony. 



This is one of the highest dispositions. In evincing it prac- 

 tically, you but follow the lesson of the Creator. In His hand- 

 works, in every object of His great Universe, utility and beauty 

 are combined. The union of these characteristics is visible 

 in the sun, moon and stars, in the form of the earth, in the 

 mountains, the valleys, the forests, the rivers, the lakes, the 

 seas ; in every tree, every plant, every flower, every spire of 

 grass ; in every creature that walks, or flies, or swims. In 

 the changes of the seasons, in all the displays of spring, sum- 

 mer, autumn and winter, the order and aspect arc those of 

 ■utility and beauty conjoined and blended. You cannot discover 

 among the works of the Almighty, a general scene, or a single 

 thing, which does not reveal the design to minister both to 

 man's plainer wants, and to his loftier and finer needs. 



