1856.] Kate Osborne. 197 



"Certainly, madam: Sixteen years, just two-thirds of my- life," 

 answered Clinton, "have been spent on the farm ; and you know," con- 

 tinued he, smiling, " how difficult it becomes to eradicate the germinals 

 of thought implanted in the mind of childhood." 



*'But now, really, Mr. Clinton," persisted the widow, her fine counte- 

 nance bearing a bloom almost youthful, which the excitement of her 

 conversation had lent, " really, do you not think it a waste of time to 

 have spent so much in the acquisition of sciences that, as a farmer, can 

 be of no use to you ? " 



** Allow me, madam," Clinton smilingly replied, " to exercise, for once, 

 the privilege that must be accorded to my Xew England pedigree, of 

 answering 3'our question by asking another: and pray tell me what 

 science there is in the whole curriculum of human knowledge not useful 

 to the agriculturist ? " 



The widow remained thoughtful but silent, and Clinton continued : " I 

 know of none — I can think of none. Even my law knowledge could not 

 fail to be of service to me in the countless contracts and business trans- 

 actions that must attend such pursuits." 



" But your dignity, Mr. Clinton ; think of your dignity !" mischiev- 

 ously exclaimed the widow, in a kind of mock-heroic, semi-tragic tone. 

 " There, too, my dear madam," said Clinton, " I must join issue on 

 your demurrer. But if you mean the adventitious dignity of pomatum 

 and pat'jnt-leather, of white hands and black gloves, this I confess 

 must be sacrificed. But I must maintain, that in this profession, so far 

 as profession can at all affect it, the true dignity of genuine manhood is 

 most unequivocally promoted. Man aspires to the exalted rank of ' lord 

 of creation ; ' to attain to this, he must first become master of himself. 

 And, in their course to the attainment of this, the race must first learn 

 to tame the plants of the earth, then to tame the beasts of the field, next 

 to tame the powers of nature, and lastl3% to tame themselves. To all 

 the-e agriculture directly tends. So striking are its influences, so man- 

 ifest its blessings, in this particular, that all nations of antiquity wor- 

 shiped, with grateful adoration, the givers of grain, as the gods them- 

 selves. The old Germans looked upon their giant Thor as a tiller of the 

 soil that he had wrested from the hands of Winter, in spite of all his 

 storms and tempests. He had brought his beloved children the precious 

 grain, and with it came order and peace. Demeter, crowned with ears 

 of golden corn, was the great goddess of the Greeks, whom they wor- 

 shiped, in awful mysteries, as the giver of law and virtue ; and Ceres 

 held the same rank among the Romans. Indeed, every notion has its 

 legend of similar import ; and the Christian prays for the millenial period 



