MR. PAYSON S ADDRESS. 5 



made me presumptuous enough to accept it. It is gratifjing to a 

 man's pride, to suppose that his friends have a good opinion of him, 

 "whether he deserves it or not. Now to those who expect "to hear 

 some new thing," I have only to say, save your ears for another oc- 

 casion. If by a remai-k of mine, any man is induced to make two 

 blades of gr<;3s grow where but one grew before, I shall have done 

 some service and will be content. 



On the annual return of this day here and elsewhere, the great 

 Improvements in modern Agriculture have been frequently made an 

 interesting topic of discourse. Thirty years have indeed wrought 

 wonderful changes in farming as in everything else. It is also true, 

 in nothing else has change been effected with so much difficulty. Ig- 

 norance and obstinacy have always sneered at improvement Nor have 

 innovations in agriculture had these alone to contend with, but blind er- 

 ror^ which "like the adder stoppeth her ears and will not listen to the 

 voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely," has always stood in 

 their way. It has been said that "error, when she retraces her foot- 

 steps, has farther to go before she can arrive at truth than ignorance;" 

 but the way which she takes to get out of the heads of some farmers, is 

 the crookedest road, that it ever entered into the imagination of man 

 to conceive. Why, if the best iron plough of this day, had been 

 presented to a farmer thirty years ago, he would as soon have told 

 the assessors that he was not taxed high enough, as to have used it. 

 But though old c-,,}rstition is in its grave and many an ancient 

 prejudice lie? buried beside it, the race is not quite extinct. 



ShouV .,he genin A America, in time to come, beget a second Wal- 

 ter S' Li — alth-:^Q we may not introduce the mother of Cuddie Hard- 

 ri^ _,'*' as a representative of the character of New England yeomanry 

 .1 this nil. ^eenth century, still he will find many like a servant of the 

 ia,'ue I'iAe of Bedford, of whom it is said, that when ploughing with his 

 '^'ir iiorses yoked at full length, the Duke left his carriage and zeal- 

 as to do him a service, yoked the horses two abreast, held the 

 plough himself, and explained to him the advantage of this new 

 method. The answer of the man was characteristic of the profes- 



*"Your leddy-ship and the steward hae been pleased to propose, that my son Cuddie 

 suld work in the barn wi a new fangled machine for dighting the corn frae the chaff, 

 thus impiously thwarting the will of Divine Providence, by raising the wind for your 

 leddy-ship's ain particular use by human airt, instead of soliciting it by prayer, or wait- 

 ing patiently for whatever dispensation of vvindProvidence is pleased to send upon 

 the sheeling hill." Old Mortality. 



