2Q0 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



While we condemn the remark and pity the contracted and be- 

 nighted soul that made it, let us be careful that we are not influenced 

 by the same considerations. Again, if a man is a farmer he must 

 be honest with his farm in order to be honest with posterity, for if 

 while ho is growing richer his farm is growing poorer, he is run- 

 ning up a debt for somebody else to pay, while he is taking away 

 their very means by which to do so, and his farm, instead of remain- 

 ing a monument of his industry and far-seeing justice, will only 

 be a reminder that here lived one who cared only for himself, who 

 through life played the tune played by the French on their retreat 

 from burning Moscow, (and which they have not quite forgotten 

 to play yet,) "the devil take the hindermost." 



But, ladies and gentlemen, I was to say something of success. 

 First, as to what it is. Second, how a laboring man may succeed 

 even in the State of Maine, and. Third, a few words on the influ- 

 ence of a successful life. 



You have already conceived what my ideas arc of what consti- 

 tutes a successful life. The poet has beautifully and truly said, 

 " That life is long which answers life's great end." Our lives are 

 not measured by the years we live, but by the deeds we do. That 

 life which fails to answer life's great end is a failure though upon 

 that head may be the snows of eiglity winters: That life is long 

 which is fllted with earnest effort for the comfort, happiness, pros- 

 perity and salvation of our fellow men, whether like Joseph War- 

 ren we die with our first mighty effort, or like good old Simeon 

 only depart when we behold the consjimmation of all our fondest 



-hopes. 



Let me be understood. A man may toil for threescore years and 

 ten upon his little form of fifty or an hundred acres, may never own 

 bank stock, bond or mortgage, may never be called to fill a posi- 

 tion of what the world calls honor or trust, may die worth no more 

 dollars than when tliirty years of age, save what he may have im- 

 proved his farm, and yet the universal verdict of that man's neigh- 

 bors will be, that his life has been a decided success. And wliy ? 

 Because he has filled his place in the world to the best of his ability. 

 lie has been growing better himself and the world is better for his 

 having lived in it. His farm has been growing more beautiful and 

 productive. The poor in him have found a friend. The afllicted 

 a sympathizer. The sick a helper. The young an adviser. The 

 aged a supporter. The whole world a well wisher, and the idle, 

 wicked, selfish, covetous man a constant, living reproof. He has 



