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82 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and preachers of science and religion ; yet the mountains and 

 ocean-touched portions are the most favored in this respect. 

 Whatever is majestic, grand, sublime in nature, tends to pro- 

 duce the like qualities not onlj in the student but even in the 

 common observer. So true is this, that a race may become 

 distinguished for the qualities which their native scenery seems 

 calculated to inspire. The mountain and the ocean are 

 specially fitted to exert an influence upon the character and 

 physical constitution. 



There are individual cases of eminent men who are of infe- 

 rior physical development ; but it is idle to expect a race of 

 such men. It is not necessary to urge this view ; as a general 

 truth it is agreed to. It is not, however, to be assumed that 

 mere greatness of body is an index of greatness of mind ; but 

 where a race is well developed, you may be sure that it pos- 

 sesses great original energy and is capable of cultivation and 

 refinement. You may see in State Street, Boston, at one o'clock 

 in the afternoon, as fine a class of merchants and men as any 

 city can boast ; but generally they are immigrants from Cape 

 Cod, Cape Ann, Western Massachusetts, Vermont, and New 

 Hampshire. Now a great city and a great plain are alike in 

 one respect ; they must be constantly stimulated to industry 

 and re-invigorated by the infusion of new elements of charac- 

 ter from the country around. It is apparent then that great 

 plains can only be the abode of an elevated and enlightened 

 civilization, when they are so situated as to receive new men 

 from the mountains and shores of the ocean, and have avenues 

 of commerce which draw away whatever is produced beyond 

 the necessaries of life. This is indeed now, and for an indefi- 

 nitely long period of time to come, is likely to be the condition 

 of the West. But the view we have taken leads me to consider 

 what the effects upon American character would have been had 

 it been possible to have settled the plains of the West before 

 the Atlantic slope was occupied. It is possible that the heart 

 of America would have been, like the south of Russia and 

 parts of Asia, destitute of a high civilization. Western men of 

 this generation may well doubt whether they are not as favor- 

 ably situated for developing the higher qualities of our race as 

 any otlier people. Tliey have great energy now ; but be it re- 

 membered that they have drawn from the old states and from 



