LILLY EATON'S ADDRESS. 367 



The Privileges and Duties of Farmers. 



[Extracts from an Address by Hon. Lilly Eaton, at the last Fair of the Mid- 

 dlesex Society of Husbandmen and Maiiufacturers.] 



The farmer should prize his calling, because, more than all 

 others, it promotes physical health. It is an acknowledged law 

 of our being, that our faculties are improved and strengthened 

 by use ; and, oppositely, that they are impaired and enfeebled 

 by disuse. Hence, we find the sons of Vulcan, whose sturdy 

 arms and hands have become muscular and strong, by long and 

 hardy exercise, swinging with ease the heaviest sledges ; and 

 the porter, bearing upon his head or his shoulders, the most in- 

 credible burdens. How nice are the faculties of hearing, of 

 feeling, and of memory, in the blind, who are constrained, by 

 the want of a part of their powers, to exercise and use more 

 constantly those that remain. Observe, too, the effect produced 

 upon the human system, by those occupations that are almost 

 wholly sedentary and inactive. What a large proportion, for 

 instance, of those who fill the learned professions, and who 

 have been close and devoted students for many years, without 

 exercising properly their physical powers, have become wan and 

 pale, weakly and consumptive. That occupation, therefore, 

 which, other things being equal, most effectually calls into ac- 

 tion the greatest number of the faculties of the body, — which 

 exercises its limbs, muscles, and other organs, most regularly 

 and equally, — will of course produce the healthiest, the strong- 

 est, and the noblest men. What calling is there, so well adapt- 

 ed to this result, as agriculture ? The multifarious departments 

 of the farmer's work, are constantly calling into action all the 

 various powers of the body, giving elasticity and strength to 

 each. He breathes the pure atmosphere, uncontaminated by 

 the dust and miasma of the crowded workshop, or by the ex- 

 halations that arise from numerous sources, in the populous town 

 or city. 



The farmer should be content with his calling, because suc- 

 cess therein is more certain, than in any other employment. If 

 he is faithful to his duties, he may consider himself sure of a 



