392 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



your young stout team, will work a wondrous revolution in 

 the old pasture. The brakes and the thistles will be subdued. 

 The hidden stones will be torn out and brought to the surface. 

 Sevastopol will be taken. The waving corn will rustle in the 

 yellow harvest. Your victory is sure, a victory without envy, 

 without remorse, an unalloyed conquest of labor in the path of 

 blessing. On that field once subdued and planted, the dews of 

 every night — "rain from the sweet heavens," "the clear shin- 

 ing of the sun after rain," — will work with you and for you. 

 When you rise from your refreshing sleep, you will see that 

 invisible hands have been working everywhere in aid of the 

 abounding produce. 



Not alone in the ploughing field, but in all the labors of 

 human life, there is a constant and faithful servant to all men. 

 But for this faithful servant, known by the name of routine, 

 human labor would soon exliaust human strength. Wheii he 

 has once seen the work done, he ever after takes upon himself 

 the most of the labor. AVhen the lawyer has once made a com- 

 plicated conveyance, he ever after makes a thousand of its 

 class, without wearying thought by routine. So tlie cabinet 

 minister writes his state papers ; the clergyman his sermons ; 

 the orator his addresses ; and even the poet much of his verse by 

 routine. So the mechanic builds houses and ships by routine. 

 And now the young ploughman, when he has marked his first 

 furrow round his land, will go on by routine ; and the off ox 

 will take the furrow, and the near one will walk along the 

 shoulder of the turf by routine. With the brute oxen before 

 him, all is routine. To keep the track and press their shoul- 

 ders to the yoke, to stop and haw about at the corners, to yield 

 and pause when the plough strikes a fast stone, is all they 

 know, and this they know by routine. 



But not so with him who walks between the handles of the 

 plough. Routine is his servant, doing the burden of this day's 

 work, leaving the young master's thoughts free to roam far be- 

 yond the field, and as we shall see even to the ends of the earth. 



Some strangers and townsmen passing on the distant high 

 road at intervals*, as the day progresses, see among other o})jects 

 in the landscape, the team and the young ploughman. It is a 

 common sight, and little think they of the serious and earnest 

 thoughts that occupy his mind. Nevertheless, I declare to you, 



