SHOULD A REPUBLIC ENCOURAGE THE ARTS. 



We learn that climbers will seek a prop or pole placed near them in any direction, and 

 that having reached it, some of them, as the hop, will invariably twine about it, only in 

 one direction — from east to west, rvith the sun, and as if to confound all human reason- 

 ing, and silence inquiry even as to the cause; other species, as the bean, twine around the 

 support in the contrary direction, and this with sucli uniformitj', that among a million of 

 such plants, no single exception can be found! 



The mysteries attendant on animal life, sire still more startling and complex than those 

 connected with vegetable growth. The influence of the mental and physical qualities of 

 the parent upon the offspring, the circulation of the blood, assimilation of the food for the 

 formation of the various bodily organs, are all mj'steries passing our present knowledge. 



Bodies, under the incomprehensible laws of this life principle, seem released from chem- 

 ical rules, and are converted into other bodies, having properties, apparently, entirely dis- 

 tinct and new. The egg, by the application of heat merely, is converted into the flesh, 

 and blood, and bones, and feathers of a young bird, and milk, the sole food of many young 

 animals, is changed into the diverse constituents of their breathing bodies. 



The chemist and philosopher can offer no explanation of these and a thousand other fa- 

 miliar facts, and this consideration should teach us, while we ardently pursue to their ut- 

 most limits, the investigations of true science, not to expect from her aid a sudden and 

 transforming change in our whole system of agriculture, and not to give heed to the crude 

 speculations of every plausible theorizer. Science may do much, but she cannot do every- 

 thing, and some men are disposed to refuse her aid altogether, because she will not pretend 

 to solve all mysteries. 



The story of the good woman who went to a place where she had heard chickens were 

 hatched by steam, illustrates the temper of such persons. She was shown the eggs depo- 

 sited upon cotton in drawers, subjected to the proper degree of heat. "What," she ex- 

 claimed indignantly, " hatch chickens out of eg§s, and that's all — who couldn't hatch 

 chickens out of eggs?" 



Our farmers must bear in mind, that the progress of scientific investigations must be 

 slow and cautious. They must not expect, though theorists suggest it, to manure their 

 fields by electricity alone, or to raise fine crops upon flowing sands, by merely steeping 

 their seed in some fertilizing compound. The old clergyman's answer to his servant, who 

 asked him to pray for a good crop on a very barren field, was judicious — " No, Sam, I 

 think praying alone will hardly do for that piece; we had better give it a little more ma- 

 nure first." 



Theorizing and talking about science, are not farming, nor, on the other hand, are a dog- 

 ged perseverance in old modes of husbandry, and contempt for the aid of the thinking 

 men of our day, very sure indications of wisdom. Henry F. French. 



Exeter, N. H., Jan. 5, 1S52. 



SHOULD A REPUBLIC ENCOURAGE THE ARTS? 



BY CALVERT VAUX, NEWBURGH, N. Y. 



[Tt has been honestly urged by some of our severest democratic presses, that a govern- 

 ment like ours should necessarily confine its duties to making and executing the laws, and 

 no powers being delegated to it for any other purposes, it has no right to assume 

 even for public education by common schools, &c., much less for that species of 



