PROGRESS OF FARMING. 57 



volume of nature has been conned, analyzed, and found to be 

 not a confused and fortuitous compilation, edited by chance, 

 but a profound system of truths, interlaced and mutually 

 dependent, it is no wonder that the old programmes of educa- 

 tion arc being sharply criticized — that Johnston's Chemistry of 

 Common Life, Liebig's Physiology of Plants, and general works 

 on agriculture arc supplanting treatises on dialectics, meta- 

 physics, and their congeners, about which, if the world ever 

 knew any thing, it knows little now, and cares less. 



The study for the periods prescribed of a dead literature, 

 from which no knowledge is gleaned which cannot be had 

 cheaper and easier elsewhere — save perhaps of hard terms 

 through a knowledge of their roots, is by many sensible men 

 boldly censured. If the systems of education be faulty, the 

 masses will correct them. The masses that till the ground are 

 never retrogressive. The vox populi is always heard ahead. 

 Learned professors, if good ones, are wedded to their schools, 

 as monks to their rituals, and yield reluctantly to the displace- 

 ment of what they teach and defend. It is claimed that the 

 principles of the arts of husbandry have been thus far pretty 

 accurately defined and classified. If errors there bo, they will 

 suggest themselves. The natural will correct the arbitrary. 



When the principles of an art extensively practiced begin to 

 unfold themselves, the tendency to generalize is irrepressible. 

 Rules multiply, and no deep thinker is content to use them 

 without knowing their philosophy. With him kindred facts, 

 carefully noticed, classify themselves, and induction comes of 

 its own accord. 



An occupation — the basis of material prosperity, possessing 

 the charms of art and the majesty of science, cannot fail to- 

 attract to it the busiest intellects and the warmest hearts, and: 

 attain the social weight and sway which knowledge never fails 

 to impart to the vocations which employ it. And among the 

 revolutions in this direction, which that restless revolutionist — 

 the popular mind — is constantly making, those in agriculture 

 will lead to the most general, beneficial and lasting results. 

 They will multiply the temperate, rational wants, and the 

 means to meet them. A luxury becomes a necessity, and the 

 necessity the prolific mother of inventions for its gratification 

 and supply. What better range can the brain take for health- 



