8 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



inferences from them, either for the acquisition of more knowl 

 edge, or for practical application and use. I venture to assert 

 that, without any knowledge of the particular and technical 

 terms of art, whose utility I am not disposed in the smallest 

 degree to deny, wherever the mind is at work there is science ; 

 and many men, who hardly know the letters of a book, are yet 

 profound observers of nature, and may be denominated scientific 

 agriculturists ; because they are full of knowledge, which they 

 are constantly applying to practice. Now, without any dispar 

 agement of former times, I think it must be admitted that the 

 universal mind of the agricultural world was never so powerfully 

 stirred as it is at this present time. We must do what we can 

 to keep it awake, and to direct the application of its powers. 

 &quot; Practice with science,&quot; is the terse and comprehensive motto 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. Philosophy now 

 comes down from her high places, and takes Labor by the hand, 

 that they may walk together among the works of God, and, with 

 an enlightened and commendable curiosity, &quot; search into the 

 causes of things.&quot; This is the highest office of the human 

 understanding. 



Nature proceeds by fixed laws. She is not a confused jumble 

 of things ; to-day one thing, and to-morrow another. All the 

 relations of the different parts of nature are mutual and exact, 

 and every thing moves on in a beautiful agreement with every 

 other thing. The ancients were accustomed to speak of the 

 music of the spheres ; this refers to the harmony which prevails 

 throughout the universe, so that no discordant note is ever 

 sounded. There is a reason for every thing ; there is a rule by 

 which every thing is directed and controlled. It is not enough 

 for us to say, &quot; This is a mystery ; it is in vain for us to inquire ; &quot; 

 or, &quot; Here is an arbitrary and miraculous power in nature which 

 we can never understand.&quot; There may be many things beyond 

 our comprehension ; there is nothing which should be beyond 

 our inquiry. There is a wonderful power at work always in 

 vegetation. The development and progress of vegetable life, 

 the relations of the soil to the plant produced, the effects of light 

 and air, and dew and rain, and frost and electricity, the nature 

 of manures, their uses and their results, may all be considered as 

 mysteries as yet, to a great degree, unresolved j but from what 

 we see in other parts of Nature, which have come under our 

 observation, and where some portion of her laws has been fully 



