488 ^^^^ Claijyis of Agriculture, etc. [November, 



sunshine and the storm, and concentrated the mighty powers of the 

 earth, the ocean, and the sky, directed by an unknown and mysteri- 

 ous force, which rolls the spheres and arms the thunder-cloud — why 

 are all these mystic and potent influences connected with the grow- 

 ing of every plant and the opening of every flower, the motive of 

 every engine and every implement if he did not intend that each 

 son and daughter of Adam's race should learn through the handicraft 

 of their daily toil, to look through nature up to nature's GoD, trace 

 his deep designs, and derive their mental and moral culture as well 

 as their daily food, from that toil that is ever encircled and circum- 

 scribed on all hands by the uufathomed energies of his wisdom and 

 his power." 



Is there in agricultural science, the embodiment of all the sciences, 

 no broad basis for the development of the noblest capacities of the 

 mind heart and soul ! How came such a heathenish and apostate 

 idea ever to get abroad in the world ? It must have been a Divine 

 blunder that Adam was placed in a garden, instead of the Academy. 

 Away with such monkish nonsense. Our American agriculture lays 

 claim to the benefits derived and derivable from Universities, and 

 Colleges, with their apparatus, libraries, teachers and text-books aP 

 bearing upon their pursuit for reasons already adduced and for many 

 others that will arise to every reflecting mind. 



The political declaimer may talk about the dignity of the farmer. 

 There is and can be no such thing without intellectual culture, it is 

 an idle parade of words intended but to deceive. It is mind edu- 

 cated, intelligent mind that must give dignity. 'T is this that has, and 

 ever will, continue to govern men and angels. Ignorance is power- 

 less and degrading, and where persisted in, is wicked. 



As now about one in two hundred of our population is engaged 

 in professional life, for the benefit of this meager few, over three- 

 hundred colleges and universities are established ; while there is 

 not one deserving the name, with liberal endowments, designed for 

 the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes. And 

 it is hailed with jubilant triumph, that on the far off borders of 

 Michigan one State legislature has dared to provide for this neglect- 

 ed class some six hundred acres of wild land, covered with timber, 

 and donated some forty thousand dollars of swamp and mineral 

 lands for its support. And we say well done, but there is even 

 danger still that the next legislature will be so democratic as to 

 recall the vote, and pronounce the whole unconstitutional. There 



