202 NORTH KENNEBEC SOCIETY. 



to part witli j'our calves and colts, till you shall be able to send 

 off, every full, to Brighton, to Boston, and to New York, noble 

 groups of oxen and horses, without impoverishing your estates. 

 If you can do it then, it will be all the better if the roads and 

 air be filled for miles with the dust of trampling hoofs, and the 

 roar and clatter of uplifted, looing throats, and rattling horns, 

 — all the better if your sturdy draught-horses, and your proud 

 chargers, and your slim racers, go to the great cities in num- 

 bers sufficient to win for you a princely reward. 



Some of you, perhaps, will say that I talk ambitiously. Say 

 so, if it be your mood. I shall think it is better to talk in this 

 strain, than to fold the hands, or to croak, and grumble, and 

 whine. Little by little, Vermont has attained the results to- 

 wards which I point ; and in the same manner why may not 

 Maine ? 



But the farmer's life should not be devoted wholly to the 

 one aim of making money, of turning his produce and his stock 

 into cash. Indeed, I know not in what sense he is an independ- 

 ent man, or different from a slave, if he cannot be proud and 

 pleased with his possessions, if he cannot be content with them, 

 while they are in his hands. I know not how he can dignify 

 his occupation, unless he can, if his circumstances make it ne- 

 cessary, get along cheerfully with a little money, and be "pass- 

 ing rich" in heart and hope with his family and homestead, and 

 the property in carts, wagons, tools and live stock, sufficient to 

 enable him to keep within the line of competency and freedom. 



The moral greatness of the farmer, who sees in his possess- 

 ions what money cannot buy, is higher than wealth. It is 

 shown in his wisdom, in his love for his family, in his honor, in 

 his hospitality and urbanity, in his affection and care for every- 

 thing within his ownership and control. A man of this sort of 

 greatness, walks in light, and he sees his acres glow and smile 

 in the radiance of love. Not in vain to him do the shadows of 

 the flying clouds sweep in silence over his fields; nor the brook 

 glisten in the meadow ; nor the woods or corn sway and rustle 

 in the wind ; nor the rain pour upon the thirsty earth. Not in 

 vain to him do the seasons come and go with their various and 

 glorious shows. 



