424 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



sion in the visions of distance. The analogy runs through all 

 the harmonies of God's providence. The waters of the Hou- 

 satonic, already, I fear, too frequently a contributor to my argu- 

 ment, do not with more certainty supply motive power to the 

 mills and workshops along its banks, mount in vapor to the 

 clouds to return in fertilizing showers upon the fields of the 

 husbandman, and flow on to mingle at last with the seas that 

 bear the commerce of the world, than, with equal truth, every 

 son and daughter of Berkshire, in the discharge of duties at 

 home, is contributing to the industry and productions of the 

 whole family of man. 



I am speaking to you, gentlemen, of the union of interest 

 which pervades and animates the operations of productive com- 

 munities. I have exhibited your own county as an illustra- 

 tion of these wonder working harmonies in human agency, and 

 of the brilliant results they have developed. But what Berk- 

 shire is, Massachusetts is, upon a grander scale. Our Common- 

 wealth is small in dimensions, somewhat unpropitious in her 

 climate, and by no means comparatively prolific in the quality 

 of her soil. So limited in her boundaries, she almost fades out 

 of sight upon the map, amid the broader stains that mark out 

 other and larger states. With all her ships, and farms, and fac- 

 tories, with all her swarming population, all her beneficent 

 charities and immortal institutions, she has but about one- 

 third of the number of acres of the single country which has 

 been shuffled back and forth, like a toy, between Texas and 

 New Mexico, at the present session of Congress. If she were 

 to sink beneath the waters that lave her shores, she would 

 scarcely be missed upon the geography of the globe. Territo- 

 rially, Virginia could take her up in her hand, as a very little 

 thing, square miles alone considered. Texas might hide her in 

 one of her pockets. Geographically speaking, Alabama and 

 Mississippi would entomb her amid their eternal swamps. But 

 in the characteristics which constitute and adorn a state, what 

 is she, and what are they ? I forbear to enter upon a panegyric 

 upon Massachusetts. The census of her people and the tables 

 of her industry are her best and most copious eulogists. They 

 inform us, that in spite of natural obstacles, and with no very 



