fertilizers: — agricultural, intellectual, etc. 173 



strength of the language, he sa3-s : " I take it that a mind fertilized 

 and aerated with the substance and spirit of a liberal education, 

 will bring to its literary work in any department, a surer touch, a 

 clearer vision, a higher purpose, a serener and broader judgment, 

 a finer fibre, and a sweeter essence than any mere field-trained 

 observer of facts can hope to control." 



These results are to come from a mind thus fertilized and aerated ; 

 this is my point in quoting this sentence. Aerated^ that very 

 process mentally which I have referred to chemicall}' as the one by 

 which the mass of native raw material was to be disintegrated, 

 dissolved, and made available for growth and fruit. And what 

 are some of the intellectual fertilizers corresponding to those we 

 use in other fields? It should be borne in mind that they must be 

 such as will develop and render efficient the native powers or raw 

 material of the mind, as well as furnish what can at once be assim- 

 ilated and used. Among them are books which give us the 

 thoughts and lives of earnest men ; books, too, that tell us of the 

 laws of Nature, seen in the structure of stalk, bud, and flower; 

 such periodicals as the one just started, the ''Garden and Forest," 

 full as it is of information and promise ; talking with men whose 

 intellects are wide awake ; interchange of knowledge ; a habit, too, 

 of seeking to know what is going on the world and having a hand 

 in it ; a habit of looking into the reason of things ; a habit of 

 thinking over our thoughts, after the style which Ex-President Hill, 

 of Harvard College, refers to and recommends when he saj^s, 

 " Man is ruminant, and he gets little permanent benefit from lit- 

 erary browsing unless he afterwards chews the cud." And to 

 these we add the attending all public meetings where "affairs" are 

 talked over ; taking an active part in such organizations as this 

 Society', — it is a great thing for fellow-mortals to rub against one 

 another, — attending such meetings as this, where, if one does not 

 get all the wisdom there is in the world at once, he may gather 

 something, — a little nitrogen, phosphate, or potash, which may 

 prove to be just what his soil needs ; studying thoroughly into 

 such subjects as that of " The Preservation of our Forests," — full 

 of interest and leading to curious investigations concerning the 

 influence of forests on our annual rainfall, and so to their influence 

 on climate, freshets, droughts, tornadoes, water power, all playing 

 such an important part in the country's economy and prosperity ; 

 investigating matters like that most interesting topic of the mutual 



