LINCOLN SOCIETY. . 117 



tlieir genial influence, when hill and vale are decked in green, 

 when the groves are covered with rich foliage, and filled with 

 birds and animals, when the fields, clothed with rich fruits and 

 flowers, are lending tlieir aid for our enjoyment. ^ 



Can money purchase pleasures like these ? No, tlicy are not 

 articles of trade, not to be purchased, even with the hoarded 

 treasure of the miser, but to be equally enjoyed by all with 

 rightly attuned hearts and properly cultivated natures ; all such 

 may enjoy them. So far as beauty of scenery, so far as the 

 display of nature, aided and assisted by art, each lover of the 

 beautiful works of creation has an equal, an undoubted title. 

 The proprietors can produce their deeds, to be sure ; the occu- 

 pant can point to his inclosures, show you his butts and bounds, 

 but what, I would ask, is their exclusive possession ? What do 

 their long parchment deeds with signatures and seals prove ? 

 What exclusive possession do their ditches and line fences 

 establish ? The privilege of plowing, hoeing, digging, planting, 

 sowing and harvesting. 



The owner may have the fruits of his labor, for he is entitled 

 to them, they are his, and the law of his country guarantees his 

 peaceable and quiet possession of them, but he alone is not per- 

 mitted to enjoy the rich and ever varying landscape, improved 

 by his toil and care. lie cannot, in his selfishness, hold the 

 entire right of enjoying the rich effect of sunshine and shade, 

 as they chase each other across his outstretched fields. It is 

 not alone for him that the first vegetation of spring changes 

 the forest and the fields, clothing them with rich verdure. He 

 •cannot alone breathe the highly perfumed air as it passes over 

 the flowering acres of his vast possessions. Not to the land- 

 holder alone belongs the beauty of the tall grain, waving its 

 golden heads in the gentle breeze : — nor to the miserly orchard- 

 ist, the perfumes arising from his blushing and ripening fruits. 



The rich beauties of the Indian summer, and the ever varying 

 changes of the New England forest at an early frost, are equally 

 the property of every one possessing a soul capable of appre- 

 ciating such a picture as only the Almighty can pencil. 



The advantages of a2;riculture being so universal, furnishing 

 directly the necessaries of life to all, being the source of indi- 

 vidual and national wealth, it has received special encourage- 



