58 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



to its already arduous and time-and -patience-need ing 

 problems! If it be Mind that acts upon Matter, 

 what is it that acts upon Mind? Surely MOTIVE 

 and INTEREST, and that ASSURANCE of RESULTS, which 

 the most ordinary prudence demands, and the most 

 buoyant energy feeds upon or dies. 



" Well may a bold experiment startle minds which 

 have been drilled into the habit, because into the 

 necessity, of contracting every prospect, eveiy out- 

 lay, every mental conception, within the compass of 

 an ' Agreement for a year ! ' If there is an attribute 

 which more than others marks the distinction of the 

 human mind, from that of the lower animal creation, 

 it is that it looks forward: if there is an art that 

 more than others demands the powerful and pro- 

 longed exercise of this faculty, it is agriculture ; if 

 there is a thing which adds force and method and 

 precision to this faculty, it is Education. Does 

 the pen need to draw the conclusion? Can the 

 reader of 'Sermons in Stones' decipher no Leases 

 in ClodS) no schools of instruction in ' Calx, Silex, 

 and Alumen ? ' ' 



"Winter, however, like Adversity, has a surpris- 

 ingly improving influence upon things made of 



Clay. As each little thaw toward spring-time, came 

 and went, the gradual process of granulation had 



