126 Cultivation of Taste among Farmers, [Marcli, 



delicate nature must have smooth lawns, and handsome trees, and laugh- 

 ing flowers. Such things delight her more than all the improved cattle 

 in Christendom. But if every time she looks from her window, her eye 

 falls on piles of brush, and ugly burdocks, and aspiring pig-weeds, what 

 wonder that she takes more delight at her neighbor's house than at 

 home. The truth is, her tastes if reasonable, should be gratified. A 

 neglected garden is just as repugnant to her nature, as a neglected farm 

 to that of her husband. How often have we seen farmers' wives dig- 

 ging up a little spot of ground with a case-knife, because their husbands 

 had no time to prepare it for them, or thought it useless. An hour's 

 labor would have been perhaps, all that she needed, and might have 

 been the source of how much pleasure ! It might take a little time, and 

 might not add a dollar to the purse ; but it will bring what gold can 

 never do — a strong attachment, and pure love between husband and 

 wife. It constitutes the soil in which grow the finer sensibilities. 



'' Cold and selfish natures may laugh at these things, but we pity 

 that man who can range God's heritage from year to year, and think of 

 nothing but granaries of grain. There is in waving fields a higher 

 magnificence than mere grain. " G-rasping, miserly eyes may not see it, 

 but it is there ; and to those of high thoughts and pure conceptions, it 

 speaks in the most forcible and eloquent language. No ; if we have a 

 shadow of skepticism, we would sooner take one stroll across the fields, 

 and over the hills, than read volumes of books. 



" There is something in the dancing air, and bending grass, and wav- 

 ing woods, that ought to scatter doubt, like chaif, to the four winds. 

 And farmers are just the men to study and appreciate these things. 

 Alive to the beauties of nature, what lesson might they not learn from 

 her spiritual teachings. How many things there are, to subdue pride, 

 to restrain melancholy, to cherish reverence, to inspire love ! Truth, and 

 beauty, and humility, and joy, beam as visibly from every plant and 

 flower as stars in mid-heaven, not dim nor speechless, but clear and 

 eloquent as language and pencil can make them. 



" If farmers would only study these, things, they would find them 

 imparting an ease and refinement to the mind, which lends a charm to 

 every thing, and without which the best natures are rough and 



untutorel. 



. « • ♦ » > 



Some one looking at a rich man, said, " Poor man, he toiled day and 

 night until he was forty, to gain his wealth, and he has been watching 

 it day and night, ever since, for his victuals and clothes." 



