50 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



degree — our wives have driven all bachelor notions from most 

 of us — but we are not too old to learn, and Amherst is just the 

 place for us to learn, and this course of lectures is just the 

 mode for teaching us. The social influence of such a gathering 

 of the best farmers of the State as will be seen at Amherst each 

 winter, will more than pay for all the trouble and expense of 

 attendance, and the lectures promised by Professor Agassiz, 

 Secretary Flint, Dr. Loring, Mr. Bull and others, cannot fail to be 

 of the highest interest. The course is designed not so much 

 for the students of the college as for those already engaged in 

 the pursuits of agriculture, and we hope the farmers of Berk- 

 shire and of the whole State, will appreciate this effort made in 

 their behalf. "We need such an annual re-union to get out of 

 the ruts of thought in which our minds are inclined to run in 

 our solitary life, and by contact of mind with mind, to mould 

 and polisli each other. It will be a farmers' club on a large 

 scale and of the highest order. 



We have dwelt somewhat at length on intellectual culture as 

 a means of elevating the social position of the farmer, because 

 it is emphatically the means sure of accomplishing the end ; but 

 there are one or two other means eminently conducive to the 

 same result, to which I desire briefly to call your attention ; and 

 the first is, good manners. I have sometimes feared that as a 

 class we have deserved the sneer implied in the phrase, " rustic 

 manners." We have prided ourselves on our plain, honest, 

 blunt ways, and possibly have undervalued the polished, affable 

 manners which mark the gentleman. Our isolated mode of life 

 also is conducive to strength rather than polish. The latter 

 comes mainly by intercourse with our fellow-men. By good 

 manners I do not mean the scraping and bowing and outward 

 show which bespeak the fop, but the ease and grace which dis- 

 tinguish the gentleman from the boor. They are the natural 

 outgrowth of a benevolent disposition, and are by no means to 

 be despised. They are essential in the pleasant intercourse of 

 man with man, and if we desire a higher social position we must 

 make our manners a subject of thought. A clown introduced 

 into polite society is fitted neither to give nor receive pleasure. 

 He feels like a cat in a strange garret, and is on the lookout for 

 some opening through which to make his exit. Good manners 

 are the oil which makes the machinery of society move without 



