THE FARMER AND HIS CALLING. 25 



prejudicial to labor. The young women of New England need 

 an education that shall be refining intellectually and morally, 

 and that shall fit them for the duties of the household, so that 

 they may aid or preside with delicacy, grace, and refinement, 

 and perform the necessary labors of life, never repining nor 

 complaining of their lot. When the young women of New 

 England are so educated, the whole class of agriculturists will 

 be elevated in exact proportion. 



I have said, my friends, that agriculture should be refining as 

 well as profitable and respectable. It should be — if you will 

 allow me the use of a word not English — aesthetic ; that is, 

 refining intellectually, morally and socially, so that the home of 

 the farmer may be attractive to all, young as well as old. The 

 life and the home of the farmer are free from temptation ; and 

 there is no reason in the ordination of nature nor in the decrees of 

 Heaven why he should not be a prosperous, intelligent, virtuous, 

 happy man. Free from temptation, devoted to progress or to 

 science even, without occasion for anxiety or the disturbance 

 of temper, by which wounds more fatal and more numerous 

 than those of the sword are inflicted, with sufficient exercise 

 for bodily and mental health, he secures the great boon of long- 

 life. Every farmer has security in his profession for ten years 

 more of life than is accorded to other men. 



