408 RURAL LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



Hesperides. Every wayside in the country is adorned 

 with a similar profusion ; and glittering varieties of fruits 

 hang from thousands of boughs and sprinkle the green 

 turf of every orchard. 



Nature has benevolently made all these objects delight- 

 ful to man, that he may be tempted to join the husband- 

 man in those pursuits which, being the most noble occu- 

 pations, were assigned, according to the narrative of Moses, 

 to the great progenitor of our race. Man, urged by am- 

 bition, leaves these peaceful avocations, to explore the 

 seas or join the game of fortune in the city. But never 

 in his solitary moments does his bosom cease to yearn for 

 his ancient rural home, the rustic employments of his 

 youth, his wanderings among the hills, his angling by 

 green pebbly watercourses, and the innumerable pleas- 

 ures of the field and farm. 



Fortunate men, whose ambition, if it has sometimes led 

 you to wander into other paths, is mainly satisfied with 

 performing well the duties of your pleasant, laborious 

 life ! Under the shade of the elm that guards the enclos- 

 ures of the old farm-house you may discourse upon the 

 fate of nations ; but the Arcadian sun never shone upon 

 a people so blessed with all the arts that will make life 

 happy. He is the true model farmer, though he may 

 own some fields where a bird might find shelter in a hazel 

 copse, or where a child might linger to pluck a wild 

 flower, who can exhibit in his own humble and rural home 

 the best examples of domestic virtue and happiness. If 

 the profits of his farm are small, the wants of his family 

 are rational and few. He lives in an unpretending house, 

 not embellished to suit the vulgar demands of taste, 

 but adapted to utility and convenience. But " there is 

 an angel within the house " ; and I often think, as I cast 

 my eyes about the rooms, and look upon the plain and 

 modest furniture, the clean and bright utensils, the ruddy 



