32 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1871. 



kindness of the President of this Society. He knew well that my return 

 to Worcester at this time was attended with embarrassment and feelings 

 of an indescribable nature, which his kindness led him to endeavor to 

 soothe and soften. [Applause.] He knew well that when the storm 

 had burst over my head, or at my feet — and I never have found out 

 exactly which — I took myself immediately to the rural districts, and 

 from that time to this, from Barre to Bridgewater, I have been engaged 

 in advocating the great and peaceful pursuits of agriculture. 

 [Applause.] I have no doubt he thought my mind was running con- 

 tinually in that direction, and that it would be a kind and generous 

 thing to put me upon the old beat, so that I could travel it without 

 difficulty. 



ISow, my friends, while I am grateful to him for that I do not pro- 

 pose to accept the temptation. I know well that there is a hand- 

 maiden to agriculture which deserves the attention and consideration 

 of every gallant advocate, at least of the first great lousiness. I know 

 well that while agriculture lies at the foundation, it is really the mas- 

 culine side of human life, and I am disposed to refresh myself for a few 

 moments with the other side, and take her by the hand and soothe my 

 feelings in a way in which your chairman has yet failed to do. Now, 

 my friends, Lord Bacon tells us that " God Almighty first planted a 

 garden, and indeed, it is the foremost of pleasures ; it is the greatest 

 refreshment to the spirit of man, without which buildings and palaces 

 are but gross handiwork." How true that is ! Why, we learn that man 

 was placed in a garden, not on a farm. It was but little comfort that 

 he could find amid the severe cares and duties of the farm (applause) 

 for himself or his lineal descendants. There might have been profit, 

 tliere might have been substantial eftbrt, but not that charm of culti- 

 vated nature which one finds when lie returns to that spot in which 

 his ancestors were placed. 



It is gardens too that are classical. We indeed read in the old 

 writers, accounts of the details of farm life, and Virgil tells us how a 

 swarm of bees can be obtained from the carcass of a steer, and informs 

 us of the structure of the plough and modes of cultivation in his day ; 

 but it is to gardens that we are brought for the most poetic illustra- 

 tions, and it is only when we are brought into the garden that we feel 

 that we are thoroughly refreshed. Now that is in accordance with one 

 great law of our nature. We educate ouselves to the business of life 

 by hard endeavor. We desire to be good merchants, good lavi^yers, 

 good clerg3'men, good farmers, good benefactors, good business men of 

 every description, and one part of the business of life is to strengthen 

 our muscle and our brain for the service which is assigned us here in 

 the world. But there is one side of our nature which we should never 

 forget, and it is that which finds expression in poetry, in art, in a gar- 

 den. It is the fEsthetic culture, it is that side which is so nearly allied 

 to the best side within u^, that it almost forms a part of the divinity 



