38 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



saying is not practical ; but is anything not practical which is 

 practicable for our highest good? You may accuse me of 

 idealizing ; but I have lived long enough to see that all good 

 ideals slowly turn to realities. The very progress of the 

 world lies in that. We have improved methods of agricul- 

 ture, — patent mowers and reapers and rakes. Is that all you 

 have to think of, — mowers and reapers and rakes ? Is there 

 to be no corresponding improvement in meutal culture ? Shall 

 material things absorb us, and the mind have nothing done 

 for it ? I believe the mind of New England is to advance ; 

 but it will not rise as it should if we rest content with merely 

 establishing common schools. Writing and ciphering may 

 make an adroit business people, but they will not make us the 

 intelligent people that we ought to be. A good town school- 

 house for adults — not alone libraries in cities, but in country 

 places — a great town school-house for adults — for books, for 

 reading, for lectures, for social gatherings ; I may not live to 

 see it, but I believe that many will see it, in the time to come. 

 Pardon me, friends and neighbors, if I speak to you one 

 word more. It shall be a short one. What I have been 

 saying suggests it. Ancient sages asked, What is the chief 

 good? The answer, then, now and forever, is, the chief good 

 is a good state of mind ; not what we possess, but what we 

 are ; not what is outside of us, but what is in us. Good 

 thoughts, good feelings, — let who will, take all other good in 

 exchange ; he will be a loser. Let who will, sell or sacrifice 

 them for gain, though he gain the whole world, he will be a 

 loser. Good thoughts, I repeat; they come to all who will 

 welcome them ; they cost nothing ; they are free as air and 

 sunshine ; they light up the world when it is darkest ; they 

 are a resource when all other resources fail ; they sweeten 

 the bitterest lot ; they cheer every toil ; they soothe every 

 sorrow ; if instead of millions, without them, I would leave 

 the best inheritance I could to my children, it would be 

 this — good thoughts. 



