18 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ject, but come down to its relations witli our modern life, and 

 its vital, e very-day interests. I shall, in this address, not 

 attempt to show the relations of agriculture to the arts and 

 sciences which promote civilization, so much as to show the 

 effect of the pursuit of agriculture upon mankind. 



There are many elements which go to make up mankind ; 

 some of which I shall point out, and endeavor to show how 

 the pursuit of agriculture affects them. First, health. 



Health lies at the foundation of every other good. All 

 great efforts of the mind, all productions of genius, have their 

 root in healthy blood and abundant vitality. Morality and 

 virtue might almost be said to be exponents of health. Old 

 Dr. Johnson said, "A man is a rascal as soon as he is sick." 

 Ralph Waldo Emerson says, "If Eric is in robust health, and 

 has slept well, and is at the top of his condition and thirty 

 years old, at his departure from Greenland he will steer Avest 

 and his ships will reach Newfoundland. But take out Eric 

 and put in a stronger and bolder man, — Biorn or Thorfin, — and 

 the ships will, with just as much ease, sail six hundred, one 

 thousand, fifteen hundred miles further, and reach Labrador 

 and New England. There is no chance in results. "With 

 adults as with children, one class enter cordially into the 

 game and whirl with the whirling world, the others have cold 

 hands and remain bystanders, or are only dragged in by the 

 humor and vivacity of those who can carry a dead weight." 

 A good maxim would be, sacrifice everything to health. 

 Sacrifice health to nothing. 



Health is not to be sacrificed, but put to service. It is the 

 bounding pulse that does the work and the thinking of the 

 world. All the great schemes of improvement and reform are 

 projected and executed by health. There is a difference be- 

 tween not being sick and being abundant in health. A man 

 to perform much must not be merely free from disease, but 

 lie must have immense vitality. He must be able to sleep 

 well and eat well and assimilate well. He must be possessed 

 of plus animal life and spirits. Then worl^ing, planning and 

 creating are means of the highest pleasure. ]\lany good things 

 are written about the rules of hygiene ; gymnastic schools are 

 established in cultivated society everywhere ; but when every- 

 thing has been said and done that art and science can do, the 



