474 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



feet statue of manhood. But fears of this kind fade away in 

 the light of the manifestations around me, of that restless spirit 

 of inquiry, dissatisfied with the present, apprehensive for the 

 future, — seeking to avoid the declivity, and reaching up the 

 ascent, for the attainment of what there is an inward conscious- 

 ness of capacity to achieve, kindled in the breasts of the steady 

 yeomanry all over the Commonwealth, bringing them up from 

 their harvest fields brown with the summer's sun, and making 

 profert of the stalwart arm and iron muscle which no toil can 

 tire ; coming up with the emblems and fruits of the sweat of 

 their brow, to these festivals, here to rejoice in " the victories 

 of peace more renowned than those of war." These omens are 

 unmistakable. They augur a public sentiment which, ere long, 

 will be resistless, and out of which will spring that action of 

 the Commonwealth, which, sooner or later, self-respect and 

 self-defence will compel her to take. 



Fellow-citizens, I have attempted to picture to you but one 

 view of that future which all the signs of the times unite in pro- 

 nouncing so near at hand. I have but reminded you of the gain 

 to your granaries and your treasures, which would flow in from 

 every hill-side, and spring up in every vale under the benign 

 influence of an enlightened and liberal education bestowed on 

 every farmer. There are other views of this subject not less 

 important, and which ought never to be omitted or made sub- 

 ordinate in the consideration of the measureless good with 

 which it is fraught — ^views which, were not both my time and 

 your patience exhausted, I should delight to present. Never- 

 theless, do not forget the moral and religious influences which 

 would be shed over the land, by such a system of education. 

 Ignorance and vice are hand-maids, but an enlightened educa- 

 tion clothes a man or a body of men iu a coat of mail, and 

 becomes a shield and a rampart against the insidious approach 

 of the tempter. Nor is this all. Such an education will open 

 to the farmer the beauties, the mysteries and the sublimities of 

 nature. He will not then go forth to his daily toil like a de- 

 mented slave, or a senseless automaton, but his eyes by this 

 anointing will be opened to the beauty of God's works spread 

 out before him. The landscape, the velvet lawn, the golden 

 sunset, the gushing fountain, and the little rivulet handing itself 



