1856.] Dedication of Pol ijtc clinic Hall — Address. 53 1 



As a pursuit, it dates back to a patriarchal age; indeed, to tlie time 

 when Adam in the garden dressed the first budding plants, and 

 watched the first blooming rose. There is no reason, if antiquity 

 can impart dignity, why this should not be the most honored, the 

 most honorable. Further then, we assert, that it is not in that iron 

 necessity which compels all trades, arts and professions, to look to 

 this calling for food, for raiment, and shelter, that will place the 

 farmer in his true position, and give him his own proper dignity ; 

 for we have seen a nation's famishing millions empty their treasures 

 at his feet, and we are assured that his products are necessary to 

 our very existence ; and that he possesses the very elements of a 

 nation's prosperity, a nation's progress ; yet it fails to do him honor; 

 his calling is associated with sweat and toil, with hard hands and 

 small compensation. Show, and luxury, and leisure are far from 

 him, and these the multitude admire and covet in preference. The 

 farmer is often the humble servant of the youthful aspirant after fame; 

 and he is often deemed most worthy of his vote to ofiice and to 

 honor. No, 'tis not in any or all of these combined, to give to the 

 agriculturist the elevation, the dignity, to which he should aspire. 

 But it is in the proper development, the proper cultivation of his 

 mind. 'Tis the talent brought into his business, 'tis educated labor 

 that must impart dignity. There never was a truer saying than 

 that knowledge is power. The knowledge of our physical being is 

 power ; the knowledge of our mental capacity is power ; the knowl- 

 edge of natural laws, of the trades we practice, the tools we handle, 

 the earth upon which we tread ; its formations and productions is 

 power ; in short, it is mind, developed mind, that governs the world. 

 It is to developed, educated mind, that the world is indebted for all 

 that is called progress. The soul is the urn that scatters beauty 

 over all creation. The forest and the lake are lovely because the 

 thinking soul hath breathed upon them. 



" 'Tis not in the light of yonder setting sun that beauty dwells ; 

 sublimity tabernacles not in mountain peaks, nor dark and gloomy 

 depths ; nor yet soars on tempest's wings or lightning's fiery brow, 

 but in the reasoning, thinking spirit — the Mind." This mind which 

 is no royal prerogative, but the common endowment of the peasant 

 and the prince, when developed by education, when stored with know- 

 ledge, exceeds in grandeur the whole material universe. For no part 

 of it can reason, think or feel ; not a star that twinkles in the blue 

 vault of night, nor the sun with all its attendant planets; yet these are 



