1846.] False Estimates. 83 



has made within a few years. They have gone on step by step, 

 undetered by the drones, and unaffected by the heat of the vision- 

 aries, and they have actually brought to pass a gi'eat deal. And 

 in a few years they will bring to pass much more. They will 

 add dignity to the occupation of farming and give it not the 

 character of a profession, but of a scientific art, if I may use such 

 an expression. 



A great deal has been said about "elevating up" — to use a sort 

 of slang phrase — the business of farming, and placing it on a 

 level w^ith the liberal professions. It has always stood upon this 

 level. In this country, of really equal rights, it is the man, not 

 his trade or calling, that gains respect. The farmer who elevates 

 himself, will stand upon the spot he ought to stand on. Charac- 

 ter in a democratic people, is like water. It will seek its level. 

 If the mind of the man is dignified, it will confer dignity on his 

 calling; if it is low and mean and conti-acted, it will forever 

 drag down the man and his character and his occupation, as if he 

 had a mill-stone to his neck. So true is the line I learned at 



school — 



' The mind's the standard of the man.' 



No — you cannot raise farming to a place of dignity and honor 

 unless the farmer himself does it. A man will honor or disgrace 

 his business according as his mind is filled with his own dignity. 

 He demands and receives respect, or he gives himself up to be 

 disregarded and despised. This is true, throughout the whole 

 range of trades, callings and professions in this country. The 

 lawyer or the physician is not respected because he is one, but 

 because he brings a dignity and respect to the profession. If he 

 does not, he grovels down with the rest of the herd Mho do not 

 respect themselves. This is the true philosophy of equal rights 

 or rather unequal rights, and stands simply thus, it is not the cal- 

 ling that makes the man respectable, but the man that makes the 

 calling respectable. I will not trouble myself with the excep- 

 tions found in the factitious merit attached sometimes to wealth. 

 It is a miserable exception. 



