TIIE PRIVILEGED CLASS. 345 



with the vices and crimes, the wrongs and hatreds, of men ; 

 while the physician deals with the mental ills and physical 

 ailments of humanity itself. But is the labor of the physician 

 who visits all manner of disease and every loathsome ill, more 

 cleanly than that of the farmer ? Has the lawyer, who, for a 

 piece of money, defends his client — even the thief or the mur- 

 derer — from punishment, a clearer and more peaceful conscience 

 than the farmer ? Does the minister always lay his head upon 

 the pillow at night with the feeling that nothing has been left 

 undone, which human agency could do, for the salvation of his 

 flock ? It is indeed the privilege of these classes to live upon 

 the depravity, the perverse will and the manifold ills of man- 

 kind ; and whatever helps to increase the latter, helps, at the 

 same time, to increase the need of the former. In one sense 

 they are, it must be confessed, a privileged class, for they deal 

 with minds ; their knowledge of human nature is extended ; 

 their influence is increased. 



We hear the farmers called the producing class. But, if 

 there is a privileged class in the community, it should be the 

 intelligent, independent farmers. They are privileged by their 

 Creator in the enjoyment of those temporal blessings which are 

 the natural result of sober, industrious and contented habits. 

 It is the man that determines the dignity of his occupation, and 

 not the occupation which measures the dignity of the man. 

 Knowledge exalts. Ignorance degrades. Farming will be 

 esteemed honorable just in proportion as it is associated with 

 refinement and intelligence. Nor is it enough that we merely 

 have knowledge. "We must be able to impart it to others. 

 Many farmers have native good sense without the power of using 

 good language ; and consequently they do not take that social 

 position to which their good sense would otherwise entitle them. 

 Speech is the grand distinction between man and the brute 

 creation. But this is the result of cultivation and social inter- 

 course. Laughter and tears, smiles and blushes, are instinctive 

 acts of man. Our social rank depends very much upon our 

 power of using correct language. An easy, fluent, graceful 

 utterance gives one access to many social advantages ; and 

 these, in turn, afford aid to his utterance. It is not so much 

 what we know that gives us power over others, as it is the ability 

 to bring out and make use of our knowledge ; and the ability 

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