1847.] Diffusion of JlgricuUural Knowledge. 157 



the more abstruse and profound sciences have been generally, 

 fathomed to greater depths by individual enterprize, yet these in- 

 stitutions are the medium through which they are disseminated. 

 These sciences, in many respects, are of the utmost importance to 

 mankind ; even the science of astroraony, having its ranges so 

 remote from the field of human action, in its application to the 

 navigation of the seas, has a direct, indispensable bearing upon 

 the commerce and prosperity of our countiy. Every man who 

 " tills the ground" is benefitted by the perfection of this science : 

 and every prosperous and patriotic farmer should feel proud of the 

 high and noble literary institutions of his country. Nor would 

 we detract in the least from the merits and usefulness of the com- 

 mon schools of the land, it is in these assemblages that individ- 

 uals learn the rudiments of that knowledge which qualifies them 

 to transact the ordinary business of life. It is in these schools 

 that they acquire a knowledge of letters which enables them to 

 conduct their international commerce in a legible form. It is 

 here they take their incipient steps in the progress toward high- 

 er attainments of learning. So important is the knowledge ac- 

 quired even within these limits, that it is a duty fraught with the 

 most sacred injunctions, devolving upon parents and teachers to 

 give the children of the land every proper facility to advance 

 their knowledge in the rudiments of learning, to spread before 

 them every inducement to engage in the enterprize, and faithfully 

 and impressively to warn them against the delays in acquiring the 

 literary qualifications so useful to them in manhood. In casting 

 a glance however, over the great drauia of life, there is a great 

 ardor of hiunan learning other than that acquired in collegiate 

 halls, in academic shades, or in the cheerful circles of the school 

 house ; the knowledge that man acquires after he arrives at the 

 age of maturity, as he launches forth into the bosom of society, 

 depending as he does upon his own resources to bear him onward 

 in a successful career of action. Here is a field of contemplation, 

 to interest the youth and the sage. How often has it happened 

 that intellects that shone with such brightness in the halls of 

 learning, have in after life, been dimmed by the brighter glow of 

 intellects that once flickered in obscurity, and their marches traced 

 along the shades of poverty far into manhood. Hence the im- 

 portance of pursuing the paths of knowledge, after both mind 

 and body receive the impress of maturity. 



A well educated mind in early life, that fails to receive an after 

 culture, is not inaptly compared to a garden that has received the 

 best labors of its culturist's care ; admired for the efficiency of its 

 enclosures, for the well arrangement of it walks, for its ornament- 

 al trees, and for the beauty and fragrance of its flora. By neg- 

 lect, its walls become dilapidated, its trees assume a dwarfish 



