28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



THE CULTURE OF THE CIVIC VIRTUES. 



BY REV. CALVIN STEBBINS, FllAMINGHAM. 



There are two classes of American citizens who make a 

 great deal of noise (but of a very different kind), — the 

 boaster and the grumbler. The one is a happy creature and 

 wants everybody to be happy. He is a thorough-going 

 optimist and loves to dwell on the bigness of our country 

 and talk of " manifest destiny." The other is unhappy. 

 He is a thorough-going pessimist, and does his best to make 

 everybody feel worse than he does. He is 



More peevish, cross and splenetic 

 Than dog distract or monkey sick. 



His mournful howl about the follies of the people is at times 

 something dreadful. But the truth is, these two classes 

 really form but one and may be denominated the " noisy 

 class." As we say, " extremes meet," or better, as the old 

 Greek had it, " Dry dust is mud's own brother." Edmund 

 Burke, who understood both parties, warned men long ago 

 against the liability of mistaking them for the whole com- 

 munity in his celebrated figure of " half a dozen grasshop- 

 pers under a fern making the whole field ring with their 

 importunate chink, while thousands of great cattle repose 

 beneath the shadow of the British oak chewing the cud, and 

 arc silent ; pray do not imagine that those who make the 

 noise are the only inhabitants of the field." The noisy oc- 

 cupants of the field need not trouble us this afternoon. 



In a general order, having for its object the improvement 

 of the army, Lieutenant-! J eneral Miles has said: "It is 

 essential that the army shall fully understand the character 

 of our government, shall realize the benefits and preroga- 

 tives granted by our constitution and be familiar with the 



