SOCIAL LIFE OF THE FARMER. 115 



IMPRESS ON THE FARMEK S CHARACTER. 



Such to my mind are the leading obstacles that farmers 

 must meet and surmount in their struggle upward to a 

 higlier plane of character and living. That they 'ire formi- 

 dable is evident enough, and all the more so because not ac- 

 cidental, but inherent; bound up, in fact, with the very 

 nature of the occupation. Their entire removal is, therefore, 

 not to be expected. The most to be hoped for is that their 

 depressing influence may be in a measure counteracted. But, 

 before proceeding to suggest some means by which this may 

 be done, it is well to inquire whether the limitations of which 

 I have spoken are after all to be regarded as serious evils. 

 Is any marked impress for the worse left by them on the 

 farmer's character? I think such an impress i^ left, some 

 of the points of which I will briefly state. And, if the pic- 

 ture shall seem less flattering than you could wish, you will 

 not resent the criticism, even if you cannot accept it. You 

 are not here, gentlemen, I take it, to be complimented and 

 coddled, but to receive in a manly way such hints as may be 

 helpful to you in the conduct of life. If I were studying 

 any other occupation, my own not excepted, I should doubt- 

 less find influences unfavorable to the best development of 

 mind and character. 



SLOWNESS OF MIND. 



This impress is seen, in the first place, in a characteristic 

 slowness of mental movement. Emerson says of the farm- 

 er, " He is a slow person, timed to Nature, and not to city 

 watches. He takes the pace of seasons, plants, and chemis- 

 try. Nature never hurries : atom by atom, little by little, 

 she achieves her work." " The farmer times himself to 

 Nature, and acquires that lifelong patience which belongs to 

 her." But it is not the influence of nature alone, I imagine, 

 but of nature combined with solitude, that makes the farm- 

 er so characteristically slow in his movements. Such is 

 the constitution of mind, that it can be quickened to its high- 

 est activity only by contact with other minds. Solitude 

 doubtless teuds to cultivate individuality, and independence 

 and depth of thought ; and, where there is great native force, 

 there may also be a good degree of mental activity in a life 



