EUEAL LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



IT has often seemed to me, that, while the world is 

 progressing in the mechanic arts and in the refinements 

 of civilized life, we are losing ground in that healthful 

 simplicity that marked the habits of our ancestors. Epi- 

 cures taught that the secret of happiness is to preserve 

 our tranquillity. Practical philosophy has not discovered 

 anything in contradiction of this maxim, though the in- 

 stincts of men prompt them to seek excitement. There 

 is a kind of sentimental yearning for the quiet and sim- 

 plicity of rural life, but there is a more active impulse 

 in the breast of the young, that draws them away from 

 humble pursuits, and forces them into the march of 

 ambition and fortune-hunting. The wisest are those who 

 content themselves with simple rustic occupations, with- 

 out falling into habits of indolence and apathy. He is a 

 happy man who can preserve his calmness and self-pos- 

 session without losing his energy ; who can sit in coun- 

 cils of state, and not be carried away by party zeal and 

 ambition, and, on the other hand, can swing a scythe or 

 hold a plough without entirely discarding more thought- 

 ful employments. The great are they who are not con- 

 trolled by those circumstances that give to other men 

 their principal hues of character. 



The life of a farmer has been a theme for the praises 

 of poets and orators from the earliest ages. The pleas- 

 ures and comforts attending his labors have been so 

 often eulogized, that the praise bestowed upon them has 

 come to be considered one of the platitudes of ordinary 



