PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Xlll 



from heaven by night, and the rock no longer pours forth its crystal treasures at 

 the touch of the prophet s wand, could give us neither their prayers nor their 

 exhortations ; the pious hands could not be raised to Heaven for its benediction, 

 and the eloquent lips would become dumb. 



I believe the agricultural profession is highly favorable to good morals ; I 

 shall not presume to say more so than any other ; but it will not be too much 

 to say more so than many others. Perhaps it will be said, that the agricultural 

 districts of England and other countries yield their full proportion of crime. I 

 will not peremptorily deny what is often confidently asserted ; but I am not 

 ready to concede to it until other proof than I have yet received is furnished. 

 As far as my own personal observation and experience go, my conviction is the 

 reverse of this. Two fruitful sources of crime are to be found in excited pas 

 sions and in powerful temptations. Agricultural occupations, so far from ex 

 citing, tend to exhaust and allay the passions ; and the retirement and seclusion 

 of the country present fewer temptations than the tumultuous life, the oppor 

 tunities for vicious association, the disorderly hours, and the infinite variety of 

 attractions and engagements of city life. Among, however, a degraded popu 

 lation, poor and half-fed, without education, without any interest in the soil, 

 without friends to take an interest in their welfare, without any sentiment of 

 the value of character, without self-respect, accustomed to pass their unoccupied 

 time in drinking-houses and in degrading pleasures, and treated and lodged 

 without distinction of sex, and without any regard to the common decencies of 

 life, it is not surprising to find a nursery and hot-bed of crime, where it shoots 

 up in startling luxuriance. My acquaintance with many of the villages and 

 rural districts of England and Scotland satisfies me that the favorable moral influ 

 ences which might be looked for from rural life and agricultural pursuits, are 

 there found in full operation ; and under a system of more general and improved 

 education, and especially under institutions which would give those encourage 

 ments to labor which are the most powerful motives, as well as the proper 

 rewards of industry and good conduct, these influences might be expected to be 

 even more general. 



Let me speak of a district or country with which I have been many years 

 familiar : * it is a purely agricultural district ; it contains about three hundred 

 thousand inhabitants ; its climate is cold and severe ; its soil, with some excep 

 tions, of moderate fertility, and requiring the brave and strong hand of toil to 

 make it productive. It has public and free schools in every town and parish, and 

 several seminaries of learning of a higher character, and where the branches of a 



* The State of Vermont, United States. 

 VOL. II. b 



