266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and future ? and then go steadily onward felling the trees and 

 grubbing the road for their more timid followers. If a few leading 

 individuals in each town will do this and persevere, people will 

 soon see that they are in earnest, and earnestness of purpose al- 

 ways begets conJSdence. 



I have spoken of the farmers' and mechanics' club as one of the 

 means by which success is to be reached, because it is compara- 

 tively a new thing, ;ind because it is perhaps better calculated to 

 produce the general results aimed for than any other enterprise now 

 available, and not because it is the only source of impi'ovement, 

 or able of itself to supply all the needs of our various circumstan- 

 ces, for a real and satisfactory success is only to be reached by 

 honestly and earnestly availing ourselves of all the sources and op- 

 portunities of improvement within our reach, treasuring up know- 

 ledge to-day that we may impart it to-morrow, doing present duties 

 to-day, and doing with all our might whatever our hands or our 

 hearts find to do. But I must hasten on,, or the thirty minutes 

 which I have allotted myself will be up before I am down. I wish 

 to say a few words on the influence of such a life as I have de- 

 scribed. It was said by one of the Greek sages, that no man was 

 so low as to have no influence, or so mean as to have no friends. 

 All men have influence in proportion to their standing in the com- 

 munity, and it is of the first importance that that influence be cast 

 upon the side of right. No act of our lives however trivial, but is 

 to some extent an index of our character. Perhaps the most of you 

 have read " Bleak House," and if so you have been interested and 

 amused at the way in which Mr. Detective Bucket " I'eckoned up " 

 the individuals with whom he came in contact ; and we should be 

 surprised if we knew how often our associates are "-reckoning" 

 us up, and from how seemingly small and unimportant acts they 

 get impressions and form opinions tliat will stick tu them through 

 life. We all know that there are in every community some men 

 who never, put one foot before the other, whenever turu their 

 hand over, but for the furthering of their own ends or plans, or in 

 someway benefiting themselves ; men who have so long looked upon 

 the world as one vast " grab bag " hung up for their es])ecial bene- 

 fit, and out of which they are to extract something that will re- 

 turn them a semi-annual dividend in current funds, wholly irre- 

 spective of the wants and rights of others ; men who make the fact 

 that a certain venture or investment has left one dollar, more or 

 less, in their pocket, a full and complete justification of the means 



