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accumulation of worldly goods, was, at least, the surest pursuit for 

 his children, in the absence of that successful tact which he himself 

 possessed for professional, mercantile, or mechanical life. But he 

 has, on the other hand, imbibed the popular and mistaken notions of 

 the day on that subject. He might, like others who fancied they 

 had some Agricultural taste, have had his own country house and 

 farm got up at great expense; and been pestered with worthless ser- 

 vants, and dishonest managers, who only pillaged and worried him ; 

 and after a brief and unsatisfactory trial, abandoned it in disgust, like 

 hundreds of his friends and neighbors; never dreaming that his farm- 

 ing got on quite as well as his law, or his trade would have done, 

 with the same amount of his own personal attention! That, and the 

 drudgery of the ordinary farmer, who tilled his own scanty acres in 

 his immediate neighborhood, and whose association, as ignorant and 

 degrading, he had scorned, were the only experience he had known, 

 on which to make up his opinions ; and as a matter of course, he only 

 knew agriculture to condemn it. 



But had Agriculture her proper institutions, where his children 

 could have been taught its necessary education and practice, and ex- 

 erted its proper influence among the pursuits of the day, how readily 

 would he have embraced the advantages it offered to his family, and 

 eagerly bestowed the best talents of his sons to its rewards! Thus 

 prepared to enjoy it, how many thousands of men, rich in the ac- 

 quirement of proper knowledge, and fortified in the possession of 

 wholesome estates, would be shining examples of thrift and improve- 

 ment in our midst! Ample domains, with broad cultivated fields 

 spreading pastures, dotted with the lively spectacle of flocks and 

 herds meadows, waving under the burthen of their luxuriant grasses; 

 and graced with comfortable mansions and bending orchards; and 

 peopled throughout the year with those who really felt the dignity of 

 their calling, would spread along your noble rivers; and look abroad 



