ADVANTAGES OF RURAL PURSUITS. 40 



If, for example, a man hankers for political distinction, tlie 

 thirst for which has been one of the greatest curses that has 

 atlHctcd our country, (the locusts of Egypt were mercy in 

 comparison,) it will by no means mar liis prospects to have the 

 title of farmer prefixed to his name. It throws that of esquire 

 or reverend at once into the shade. The proplict sought for 

 the king of Israel among the shepherds of Bethlehem. The 

 Romans found the Saviour of the republic at the plough. The 

 Father of liis Country was a Virginia planter. With the 

 Farmer of the Hermitage and the Farmer of Marshfield our 

 dear old homestead remained undivided. 



There is, doubtless, more or less pretension about the matter. 

 Every aspirant for office who ever rode within sight of a corn- 

 field, or whose grandfather ever held a plough, is, for the nonce, 

 a farmer. But there is a valuable truth underlying this preten- 

 sion. It is a deep and prevalent conviction that rural pursuits 

 keep the mind and heart in sound and liealthy tone ; that they 

 who till the soil and moisten it with the sweat of their brows, 

 cannot but love it ; that his heart must be cold and dead, who, 

 standing beneath the tree in whose shade he sported in child- 

 hood, and looking out upon the broad acres his skill and muscle 

 have subdued and clad Avith beauty, does not feel witl\ singular 

 depth and earnestness, 



" This is my own, my native land." 



If a young man has higher, nobler aims in life, the develop- 

 ment and culture of mind and heart, what better school is there 

 than the culture of the earth? 1 mean, of course, the culture 

 of the earth in the light and with the eye of science. The 

 science of agriculture, beautiful as it is profound, looking into 

 the very heart of Nature's secrets and mysteries, at once the 

 interpreter and handmaid of creative wisdom and power, will 

 feed, refresh and strengthen the mind, at the same time that it 

 fits it for every day's duties. Afid the close observation and 

 study of Nature, in her beauty and her divine economy, and of 

 that almost tangible Providence which moves in the procession 

 of summer and winter, day and night, seed-time and harvest, 

 and looks out upon us through the myriad forms of oi'ganic 

 life, can they fail to exalt and purify the heart, and ripen it for 



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