Xll PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



We may be told that agriculture is a purely material and sensual art, and 

 does not deserve a place among the humane arts. To a mind material and 

 sensual in all its habits, every thing- becomes material and sensual in the lowest 

 and most degrading sense of those terms. But its rational pursuit is not incom 

 patible with high intellectual attainments and the most relined taste. Whatever 

 occupies and absorbs the mind exclusively, is, of course, unfavorable to any 

 great excellence in other pursuits. Agriculture, pursued as a mere branch of 

 trade or commerce, or a mere instrument of wealth, will be found to have influ 

 ences upon the mind, narrowing and restricting its operations and aspirations, 

 corresponding with any other of the pursuits of mere avarice and acquisition, 

 and which even those of the learned professions, when pursued wholly with 

 such views, are sure to have. But when followed without exclusive views to 

 mere gain or profit, it is far from being incompatible with a high state of intel 

 lectual cultivation. Many of the sciences are the handmaids of agriculture, 

 and serve as well as ennoble it. Its practical pursuit, though it occupies, yet 

 it does not exhaust the mind ; but, within certain limits, inspirits and invigorates 

 all its faculties. A spiritual mind may spiritualize all its operations ; a religious 

 mind sees, in its wonderful and curious processes and their marvellous results, 

 many of the adorable miracles of a beneficent Providence. That a profound 

 study of the agricultural art, and an intimate acquaintance and familiarity with 

 its practical details, are not incompatible with a high degree of intellectual im 

 provement and cultivation, we have too many living examples of this union to 

 leave us to doubt ; and the immortal names of Cicero, Bacon, and Washington, 

 show, from their own assertions, that minds highly gifted of Heaven have found 

 their richest pleasures in rural and agricultural occupations and pursuits ; and in 

 company with many others, in ancient and modern times, form a magnificent 

 constellation of learning, genius, and taste, shedding their splendor upon this 

 useful art. 



When I hear this art spoken of with a sort of disdain, as wholly sensual and 

 material, I would ask, What is there with which man has to do which is not 

 material and sensual ? All his organs of perception are material and sensual ; 

 all of that which he calls purely intellectual or spiritual, without the power of 

 giving any intelligible definition of what he intends by it, is directly connected 

 with, moved by, controlled by, and dependent upon, his physical organization ; 

 and is vigorous as that is vigorous ; healthy only as that is healthy ; lives only 

 by being well fed and well cared for. Even the pious clergy, who caution us 

 so strongly against secular pursuits, and against seeking things earthly and tem 

 poral, without the labors of the husbandman, without beef and bread, without 

 wool and silk, without rnilk and honey, since manna has ceased to come down 



