[203] 



never work out the problem which the Duke of Sutherland 

 did in his closet, of using the most powerful agent known to 

 man dynamite for that purpose. Physical force must 

 always succumb to brain force. The laborers and mechanics 

 opposed one by one the new inventions as fast as they came 

 out for lessening the manual labor in the mechanical arts, but 

 they soon found, that instead of throwing them out of employ- 

 ment, they found better in other directions. The seamstress 

 found that instead of losing her work through the introduc- 

 tion of the sewing machine, she could make more money 

 with one in one hour than she could in a whole day by sew- 

 ing by hand; so through all the departments of labor. 



Let us then, not despise knowledge obtained from books, 

 which are the only channels through which man can elevate 

 himself above the mere instincts of brute creation, and bring 

 himself to the knowledge of the living God who created 

 him in his own image, and will hold him responsible for 

 the talents committed to his care. 



I cannot close my labors without making one more effort 

 to awaken our farmers to a sense of the necessity of throwing 

 off their lethargy and supine ness, and infusing more life and 

 energy into their occupation. "A man's heart should be in 

 his vocation." The flock-master should love his sheep, and 

 feel an interest in them akin to that of his own children, 

 else he had better abandon the attempt at raising them. 

 What would be the condition of our manufacturing interests 

 to day if no more life and enterprise had been infused into 

 them than we find in our agricultural departments? Would 

 they have been able to compete with the skilled artisans and 

 mechanics of Europe ? nay, to have almost shut their man- 

 ufactures out of our markets, and even undersell them in 

 many of their productions in their own. Is there less skill 

 required in agriculture than in the mechanic arts? Agri- 

 culture is a science of the highest order, and no man will 

 succeed in it who does not so regard it. All our great 

 Southern statesmen and orators were agriculturists, and they 



