PROF. C. U. SHEPHARD'S ADDRESS. 273 



merited population. Then will it most clearly appear, that there 

 exists no real incompatibility between the labors of the field and 

 a certain degree of mental culture and simple refinement ; but, 

 on the contrary, that the uncontaminated air of heaven which 

 the farmer breathes, the beautiful forms with which nature every 

 where surrounds him in her productions, and the constant wit- 

 ness which he is, in his labors, of the beneficial operation of 

 great natural laws, powerfully conspire to the formation of a pure 

 and noble character ; and may well justify the expectation, that 

 the country will continue to accomplish more fully, in time to 

 come, than she has done even in the past, her destiny, of sup- 

 plying to science and literature her most successful proficients, 

 to the learned professions their most distinguished ornaments, 

 and to our great towns their most valued citizens ; while she is 

 still able to retain enough of solid worth and attractions, at home, 

 to enable her to make reprisals on the city, by recovering to her 

 own blissful retirement many a man, who in youth, with sound 

 constitution and upright purpose, entered the great mart of trade, 

 but who, amid all his successes, kept alive enough of nature in his 

 soul, to bring him back again to her peaceful retreats, in the 

 evening of his days. 



To the spirit of agricultural improvement, we look also, with 

 hope that it will extinguish all lingering remains of military 

 ambition; and that, under its benign and humanizing sway, we 

 shall become more emulous of re-conquering the wastes within 

 our borders than of adding new wildernesses to our already too 

 extended domain. What room is there for brilliant achievement 

 even in New England, in expelling those unsightly enemies of 

 the husbandman that have been permitted to overrun so large a 

 portion of our fair inheritance. Turn your eyes, ye martial 

 spirits of Massachusetts, to that army of golden rods, waving 

 their yellow plumes upon a thousand hills ; see yonder dauntless 

 array of life-everlastings, that crowd the wide champaigns ; see 

 our highways, and the contiguous fields, beset by insolent hordes 

 of mullen and thistles ; and fair meadows, where once flourished 

 the golden grain, now covered with base daisies and sorrel. 

 What fields of glory await you, at your very doors ! To dispos- 

 sess these daring invaders, shall yield you a hundredfold more 

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