1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FARM. 183 



means the least item, as the father of a family of children now 

 growing up in a city, the subject comes very closely home to me. 



Whence come the men now most prominent in the affairs of 

 state, or in the business of the country, or in the realm of litera- 

 ture and science ? What has been their education ?. This is a 

 never-finished subject of discussion, and when any man comes 

 prominently in front of his fellow men for any quahty that makes 

 men great, questions as to the influences which moulded his early 

 life are immediately asked. The newspapers tell us about him; 

 teachers and writers tell us what schools he attended. Prominent 

 men die and their biographies are written, or at least, a sketch of 

 their lives is given in the current newspapers, so there is an 

 abundant literature from which to draw our conclusions. 



Moreover, numerous special investigations have been made, as 

 to the origin of the leading men in particular cities or in special 

 vocations. I need not repeat statistics here, because all point to 

 the fact I have already asserted, that thus far the great 

 majority of our most successful men have come from the farms, 

 or had at least a part of their education there. The successful 

 business men of our large cities, successful engineers, statesmen, 

 professional men, have come largely from farms. As a student 

 of science, I have long noticed that a large proportion of our 

 more eminent scientific men- had a country experience in their 

 childhood. Here a religious paper compiles statistics of successful 

 men in one city; there a secular paper gives notes of the successful 

 men of another city, and all point to the same fact. 



Now, all this seems to me only the natural result of the laws- of 

 education. The more'we study the facts, the more strikin'g they 

 appear, and the more vividly we see why they are; the facts are 

 but the result of natural laws pertaining to the development 

 and growth of the race. 



I have stated elsewhere and in another connection the underly- 

 ing facts, but I may repeat some of them, in substance at least, 

 for our use in this special connection. 



The progressive element in a country like ours, and indeed in 

 any country, is in that portion of its population which is neither 

 very poor nor very rich. This is the social stratum in which orig- 

 inates the most of that quality of mind by which mankind has 

 made its greatest achievements, all that kind of intellectual power 

 which manifests itself in literature, art, discovery, invention, in 



