through our vallies and over our plains : its march upon 

 our hill-tops is that of a giant in his strength : its course 

 is not to be obstructed by jealousy, by ignorance, or by 

 parsimony : it crushes beneath its feet alike the useless 

 traditions of our predecessors, and the ridiculous theories 

 of fanciful innovators : its progress is directed by science, 

 by reason, and by experience; and its footsteps may be 

 traced by fertility and by abundance. On every side, 

 the senses are regaled with all that is fragrant and de- 

 lightful. Fields of the highest culture, orchards of bend- 

 ing fruit, and barns of loaded treasures salute the eye. — • 

 In our streets, the ear is greeted with the sound of the 

 hammer, the spindle, and the loom ; and every breeze 

 is mingled with the lowingof our vallies, and the bleating 

 of the Jiocks upon a thousand hills. 



At this sober season of the declining year, when our in^* 

 ordinate passions fade with the fading leaf — when our en- 

 vies, our little jealousies, and local prejudices should all 

 be buried in an overwhelming tide of thankfulness to the 

 Giver of all Good, for the many favours so bountifully 

 showered down upon our land — who does not feel his 

 patriotism revived ? Who does not feel encouraged to 

 renewed and more vigorous exertions in the great work 

 of encouraging domestic industry ? 



But let us, Fellow-Citizens, recollect that for our advan- 

 tages we are not indebted to any peculiar excellence of 

 soil or climate. A large proportion of the globe, far 

 behind us in improvement, is more highly favoured in 

 these particulars than our native home. No : there are, 

 under Divine Providence, certain moral causes, our en- 

 lightened Institutions, that have given to our land a splen- 

 dour that Nature denied it. Without these, barrenness 

 and poverty would have still reigned in silent desolation 

 over these fields, that have so recently been reclaimed 

 from the wilderness. It is these causes, Citizens of the 

 County of Worcester, that have given to so many of your 

 sons their opulence and their elevated rank in this s"^^ 



