238 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



to things. The abstract goodness of a stopple becomes locally- 

 precious only when it happens to fit the jug. 



A lecture or paper to be read is never remarkably good unless 

 it suits the occasion. The weather may be good or bad when 

 either wet or dry, hot or cold, as it hits our necessities. 



This present matter which I am reading may seem irrelevant, 

 but if it is only a little to windward of our present purpose and 

 gives us a chance to get well seated, and draw in a long, restful 

 breath, it will have its temporary good uses. 



Goodness is progressive. It grows to a harvest here, and is 

 frosted and set back for a period there — like corn. Heaven for 

 the tadpole would be misery and perhaps death for the completely 

 amphibious frog. The belief of the old appears like a straight- 

 jacket to the young until they have grown into a strict faith them- 

 selves with the knowledge of the old. Although the young world, 

 was pronounced "good" by its creator, we read of trouble soon 

 after, and perfect goodness has remained ever since, even among 

 the most hopeful, a pursuit rather than a possession. Would it be 

 ill-natured to suggest that some of our theories of genetic good- 

 ness have led us too far from the idea of tending garden? 



In considering the conflict, or muddle, of civilization with its 

 own waste, we cannot climb the inaccessible heights of goodness. 

 "We will not attempt to say what the Saviour meant when he 

 declared "There is none good but God," except to guess that a 

 part of his meaning was to provide for continual hope by opening 

 infinite distance before the eternal progress of the human race. 



Our subject calls us to the very beginning of goodness, such as 

 tadpoles may feel, if not understand — to that "cleanliness " which 

 " is next to godliness " (next before godliness, I believe it is, as 

 purity comes before peace). 



When the world was new we may suppose it was clean, and 

 that its fresh purity was a vast element lying at the foundation of 

 its goodness. 



But purity, like goodness, has its degrees, its relations to things, 

 and its progressive order, differing widely'in the minds of differ- 

 ent people. Our feeding and evacuating ducts may be pure 

 enough for a variety of parasitic lives, while altogether too foul 

 for our own. 



The rude, small boy, struggling with a soapy rag in his face, has 

 different views of cleanliness from those entertained a few years 



