No. 4.] JUDGING BY SCALE OF POINTS. 91 



ingly large factor, while all the while the wonderful inven- 

 tions of men are solving the problems of the day, promoting 

 a higher life and rendering a greater range of comforts pos- 

 sible to the humblest, bringing all the mighty forces to do 

 the bidding of the toilers of earth. The greatest obstacle 

 to be overcome is the opposition of those who would receive 

 the greatest benefit. I repeat, the only salvation for any 

 man is by friction through contact, friction of mind against 

 mind, ideas against ideas, thought against thought. Com- 

 panionship with individuals is not to be compared with com- 

 panionship with ideas. The weekly agricultural newspaper, 

 alive to the demands of to-day, is as necessary for the sal- 

 vation of the farmer as the golden rule for the salvation of 

 man, the friction of brain against brain as essential in the 

 development of the highest possibilities in any department 

 of farm life as the quickening power of God's spirit to help 

 up the hill of progress. 



Get this thought firmly fixed that education is the fertil- 

 izer which alone can revolutionize New England farms. If 

 conditions have changed we must change ; if market demands 

 have been transformed we must be transformed ; if the great 

 West is pouring its products down at our doors to compete 

 with the home grown, the lesson is that out of developed 

 brain power we may rise to higher attainments. 



We are shut out in one direction that our energies may 

 be directed towards the production of something better. 

 The lesson is that universal law of growth. We are not 

 crowded out, but up, if we will but through friction develop 

 the power within us. So I count the present condition and 

 future prospects a blessing to the farmers of New England 

 who aspire to grow. He who is content to follow old paths, 

 to keep in the ruts, will be crushed between the upper and 

 nether millstones. 



A horse is not a horse simply because it has the general 

 form of that animal, a cow not a cow because she has horns 

 and gives milk. Both are to be measured by their individ- 

 uality. A clean-cut conception of the distinction here indi- 

 cated is necessary. 



It is only through discipline that man preserves his 

 individuality ; therefore it follows that by the same is im- 



