236 LINCOLN SOCIETY. 



communicate them to the society. Obtain full reports from 

 your awarding committees, have them carefully compiled, printed 

 and circulated. Enlarge your society and extend its interest, 

 and in a few years it may become not only a fair of exhibition, 

 but of sale and exchange — a great mart, where annually we may 

 meet for social intercourse and mutual pleasure, from all parts 

 of the county, and make such meeting useful and profitable, by 

 affording an opportunity for buying, selling and exchanging. 



Ladies of Lincoln, upon your continued exertion and assist- 

 ance are founded the hopes of this society. "Without your con- 

 tinued aid the society would soon lose its interest. Upon your 

 efforts in collecting and arranging the fine specimens of useful 

 and ornamental work much of the interest of the fair depends. 

 Continue your assistance and cooperation, and show by your 

 example that labor is no evil — that there is an enjoyment in 

 the occupation that furnishes the bread we eat and the home 

 we enjoy. 



" May we feel that in the calm and rational pursuits of agri- 

 culture and its kindred branches, horticulture and arboriculture, 

 there is less excitement of the passions, less temptation to 

 lure from the path of virtue, and a constantly ennobling influ- 

 ence, that lifts the soul through nature to nature's God. That 

 God is daguerreotyped, as it were, before us all ; and we see 

 his wisdom and love in the bending gmss, the trembling leaf, 

 the sparkling dew, and in the thousand wonderful operations 

 constantly carried on by his superintending care, and which are 

 ever present to him who cultivates the soil. That there are 

 lessons of trust, of confidence, of submission, to be found in 

 the garden and the field in many different forms. That wisdom 

 may be found in every flower that blooms, or insect that lives. 

 That there are 



' Sermons in stones, 



Books in the running brooks. 

 And good in everything.' "■ 



