FAEMEES' INSTITUTES. 177 



them for a more scientific and intelligent practice of the noble vocation in the 

 interest of Avhich it was instituted. 



The farmer has so long been the subject of opprobrious ejjitliets and invidious 

 comparisons that it would not be wonderful should he at times come to look 

 upon himself almost as a degraded being, and to view his calling with feelings 

 of aversion, as being its source. If there should be any who ma}^ have tlius 

 regarded themselves, but who have been so much mistaken as to the real or 

 imaginary source of their sensations, we would regret that there should be a cul- 

 tivator of the soil capable of so great a weakness in permitting an idea so 

 unworthy to obtrude and poison his mind, and the rank treason expressed even 

 in thought against the respectability of tlie nurturing bosom of Dame Nature, 

 our common mother ; and although we may be unworthy sons, yet we should 

 feel proud that we are the children of so noble a parent, whom we should 

 learn to serve better, and manifest our love and veneration by heeding her 

 gentlest admonitions and executing her slightest commands. Do we not merit 

 to occupy a higher place in her regards than those people who inhabit the cities? 

 for is not the broad and beautiful expanse of the country Avhich we inhabit her 

 domain ? — its plains and its forests, its mountains and its valleys her own most 

 noble architecture, and the city that of man, a mere creature of her own cre- 

 ation? These two architect?, Nature and Art, are said to travel hand in hand 

 together, but we will add that Nature always leads. Of these two diverse con- 

 ditions of society, in which is the vital force the strongest and most vigorous? 

 Statisticians who have investigated in this direction have discovered that those 

 who are born in tlie city and have always lived there, with this condition con- 

 tinued to the third generation, that then this vital force becomes too feeble to 

 be farther perpetuated ; and that it is only through the infusion of this more 

 vigorous and healthy blood constantly flowing in from the country that their 

 present average stamina is maintained. 



Should we search the annals of history for the purpose of learning where its 

 truly gi'eat ones had their origin, we would find that nine-tenths of them came 

 from the ranks of the common people and from their rural abodes. It was from 

 amid the sublimity of Nature's grand scenery, but from homes of privation and 

 lives of toil, that many started upon their successful careers. They graduated 

 from this high-school of Nature, wdiere they learned the noble art of developing 

 their thews and sinews, and of cultivating courage and self-reliance. It was 

 here that they developed that tireless energy and unconquerable will which was 

 satisfied with nothing short of victory or death. It was in this rugged school 

 where they acquired their physical strength and their great j^owers of endurance 

 which fitted them to fight successfully the battle of life, Avin and secure undy- 

 ing fame. When Nature creates a giant mind for some great and wise purpose, 

 she also moulds a structure which is to carry it to carry it to correspond. There 

 should exist a happy union of brawn and brain. This incomprehensible battery 

 which generates God-like intelligence should experience no interruptions in its 

 circuit to produce those profoundest intellectual manifestations. 



Tliese admirable physical developments are found no where else in such per- 

 fection as among our rural people. Possessing, as one of the noble fruits of 

 toil, such superior advantages for the culture and development of our physical 

 manhood, what other important essential, then, is still lacking? The hand of 

 what great magician is yet wanting, whose magic finishing touches could trans- 

 form us not only into nobler men, better farmers, more capable and useful citi- 

 zens, but which would also permit us to march to the front, and take our places 



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