196 Kate Osborne. [April, 



It became Kate's turn, now, to listen and admire. Tlie thread of con- 

 ■^ersation had passed from her hands unobserved, and her needle-work 

 had slipped from her fingers unnoticed ; her whole attention was engrossed 

 "by the earnest, yet delicately conducted, conversation of the interlocutors 

 before her. 



" Certainly, Mr. Clinton," resumed Mrs. Sinclair, " I must not ven- 

 ture to controvert your sentiments in relation to the ' inner life ' of your 

 profession. But, permit me to ask, if, in exchanging it for the pursuits 

 of agriculture, you would not feel conscious of great sacrifice as to refine- 

 ment of tastes, cultivated as yours have been by long familiarity with 

 literature and the arts ? " 



" On the contrary," said Clinton, " I know of no profession that man 

 can follow, so signally adapted to the cultivation, and so susceptible of 

 the application, of refined tastes as that of the agriculturist. Under- 

 stand me, madam : I do not speak of that perversion which we designate 

 as ' cockney taste,' consisting of the flashy, the fanciful, the foolish, and 

 the fillagree ; which, as to both mind and heart, only vitiates, while it 

 enervates : — But, of that taste which enables us to perceive the endless 

 harmonies of the Universe, to appreciate the beauties of its order, and 

 the loveliness of its symmetry, the blended melody of its myriad sounds 

 and the blended splendors of its myriad colors — to associate, with upri- 

 sing devotion, with fruits and foliage, with bud and blossom, those " floral 

 apostles, that weep without wo, and blush without a crime:" — all-enno- 

 bling while they refine — all-strengthening while they purify." 



" But, Mr. Clinton," objected the widow, " how does it happen, then, 

 that farmers, as a class, are not more refined in their tastes? " 



*' Simply, because their minds have not had opportunity for cultiva- 

 tion, in this particular," said Clinton. " By this I mean, that no direc- 

 tion has been given to the channel ; and like the gentle fountain flowing 

 out beneath withered leaves and -forest garbage, it is choked back upon 

 itself, or perverted at its outlet from its standard course. But, also, in 

 this particular, we must be careful not to confound the matter of mere 

 manners, which is acquired only by mingling in society, and conforming 

 to its ways, whether worthy or unworthy — with the matter of taste, 

 which consists in the training of our intellectual sense of the beautiful 

 and the harmonious, the orderly and sublime. This, the farmer, though 

 unlearned in books, often has developed by his profession, to a degree 

 that his rude exterior of manners would by no means indicate." 



" Your remarks seem to signify no small intimacy with the charac- 

 teristics of this worthy class ; may I ask how you became thus informed?" 

 the widow naively inquired. 



