24 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



ery sapling, which we plant on the naked street 

 before our dwellings, makes, with every expand- 

 ing leaf and spreading limb, home pleasanter and 

 our attachments to it stronger. The saddest thing 

 in the sad lament of Eve, when driven by the angel 

 from Eden, was her apostrophe to the trees and 

 flowers which she had reared "from the first open- 

 ing bud" — trees and flowers, 



"That never would in other climate grow." 



If in New England the child is always to feel, that, 

 under the influence of a "manifest destiny," he 

 must leave the home of his father, we can at least 

 so surround this home with beauty, that he shall 

 go away more and more reluctantly, and his heart, 

 in whatever distant land it beats, shall, like the 

 sea-shell far from its native ocean, retain some faint 

 whispers of its early dwelling-place. 



Trees, whether planted in our yards, or on the 

 streets, or in our school grounds, or in our public 

 squares, always and everywhere exert a powerful 

 moral influence. That natural scenery possesses a 

 power over human hearts and human life, every 

 attentive observer of men and things must have seen. 

 The quiet and phlegmatic Dutchman is a natural 

 product of the level, monotonous Netherlands. The 

 Switzer, with his bold, adventurous, unconquerable 

 spirit, is, in his character, a legible transcript — a 

 daguerreotype of the peaks and glaciers and rug 

 ged beauty of the Alps. We may not be able to 

 tell how this influence is exerted, but the fact we 

 know and feel in our daily life and experience 

 How often does it happen, that a falling leaf, a fa^ 

 ded flower, or a blooming landscape, has changed 

 the whole current of our thoughts and our being 

 There has ever been more of divinity and divine 

 instruction in the still small voices of nature, than 

 in all the noisy harangues of the forum or wisdom 

 of the schools. The hardened and the vicious may 

 turn away their ear from the teachings of the fire 

 side and from the voice of the pulpit, but they can- 

 not thus easily escape from the preaching of nature. 

 Some strain of music from this over-arching cathe- 

 dral, or some breath of incense from its thousand 

 altars of worship, will reach them in their wan- 

 derings. 



It is a law of our intellectual and moral being, 

 that we grow into the likeness and character of the 

 objects of our constant contemplation. We are, 

 however, never susceptible of external influences, 

 our imaginations are never so vivid, our habits of 

 communing with nature in all her exhibitions of 

 beauty or deformity are never so active as in the 

 period of childhood and youth. Not a thing, ani- 

 mate or inanimate, is presented to the eye of the 

 young, but enstamps itself upon their minds and 

 hearts. Their every thought takes its hue and col- 

 oring from the objects which surround them. It is 

 of some importance, therefore, in a moral point of 

 view, that our school grounds should be something 

 besides naked, glaring sand-banks, diversified, if 

 diversified at all, with shapes of ugliness. If, as 

 somebody somewhere says, (I do not remember 

 who nor where) a man's progress in holiness of 

 heart and life depends somewhat on the binding of 

 the Bible and prayer-book from which he reads, 

 how important is it that the leaves of the great vol- 

 ume of Nature, which our children read, not morn- 

 ing and evening, but always, should be pure on 

 every page— that no blurred or blotted text should 

 hide the meaning of the author— that no gross or 



hideous picture should defile the imagination of the 

 reader! We are material beings, and live in a 

 material world, which is certain to affect us for 

 good or ill, whether we will or not. The author 

 of "Yeast" says no truer thing than this: "the 

 spiritual cannot be intended to be perfected by ig- 

 noring or crushing the physical, unless God is a 

 deceiver and his universe a self-contradiction." 

 The moral which this truth teaches is nothing more 

 nor less than this: when we have beautified our 

 own dwellings with trees, we should remember the 

 school-house, and not "lay down the shovel and 

 the hoe" until we have made the play-grounds for 

 our children there, such, in themselves and in all 

 their associations, as shall inevitably tend to ele- 

 vate and purify and ennoble humart character. 



It so happened, Mr. Editor, some two years ago, 

 that, through the exertions of Henry F. French, 

 Amos Tuck, J. S. Wells, C. J.Gilman, and a few 

 other gentlemen, a public meeting was held in this 

 town to discuss the importance of overshadowing 

 our village with forest trees, on which occasion 

 your humble servant, as well as others, made a 

 speech. The result of our united efforts was the 

 transplanting of about 2000 trees. In looking over 

 some loose papers to-day, 1 fell upon the exceeding- 

 ly meagre notes of that notable performance of 

 mine. At the suggestion of a friend I have at- 

 tempted to clothe these dry bones with flesh and to 

 make them live in your embalming journal, not as 

 the full-grown speech that was, but as the somewhat 

 guant essay that is. J. G. Hoyt. 



Exeter, Nov. 28, 1851. 



SYSTEM— ORDER— REGULARITY. 



The importance of attending to these points must 

 be apparent to every one who has had any experi- 

 ence in managing a household, and who has the 

 important and indispensable talent of observing. 

 Supposing, then, my young friends to be early 

 risers, your attention should be next directed to- 

 wards having a system and regular time for every- 

 thing you do. "There's a time to work, a time to 

 sing, and a time to play," &c. According to your 

 desires, necessities, or tastes, have your moments 

 or hours set apart, and when once fixed, adhere to 

 them, and make every other thing about the house 

 adapt themselves accordingly. In this way you 

 will soon have united and harmonious action, and 

 everything go on like "clock work." You know 

 always where to find yourself, and every one will 

 know where to find you, and place their dependence 

 and make their calculations accordingly. This is 

 supposed that you are at the head of the establish- 

 ment, for there must always be a head to a body. 

 But, if you are not at the head, you can regulate 

 according to that head, and, if there is a system 

 about it, you are as much the governor of your 

 time, as if you were the main regulator. If there 

 is not system about it, I pity you from my heart ; 

 you are a slave indeed, and must have the patience 

 of Job and the meekness of a lamb, if your temper 

 is not ruffled. From all the scourgrs and distempers 

 incident to the ills of human life, God save me from 

 factions and disturbances of an irregular household. 

 Behold the beautiful, grand and incomprehensible 

 system of all nature, the sublime regularity of the 

 heavenly universe ; watch the harmony of system, 

 and the beauty and regularity displayed by the Di- 

 vine Regulator, and who will deny that we have not 

 there an unmistakable example for us to follow ? 



