INTRODUCTION. 19 



Besides the benefit of mental discipline derived from the 

 study of nature, for which agriculture opens as wide a field 

 as any other pursuit, the charms of rural life are unalloyed 

 by the reflection of ill-gotten gain, and uncontaminated by 

 immoral influences. The farmer has no occasion to review 

 with remorse, a life of injustice to his fellow men, or mourn 

 the loss of fortunes accumulated by an occupation almost 

 necessarily dishonest. The lawyer looks upon his briefs pre- 

 pared for unjust causes, the physician upon the emaciated 

 forms of his patients, and the speculator upon the wealth 

 amassed from the ruined fortunes of others, with the humilia- 

 ting consciousness that they have not, in all cases, returned an 

 equivalent for what they have received. But the cultivator 

 of the soil may pursue his calling with the cheering reflection, 

 that an all bounteous Providence has rewarded his efforts, and 

 through him bestowed means of happiness upon his fellow 

 men. 



The reminiscenses of rural life and scenes are always 

 pleasant: who would not wish to return to the bounding and 

 joyous days of youth, which were spent among woodland 

 scenes, green fields, along the river's shore, on the sunny hill's 

 side, or in the silence of the cool ravine, where every object 

 lent enchantment to the scene, afforded pleasure without 

 alloy, and prepared the mind for the admiration of nature and 

 study of her laws in maturer years. What haunts so sacred, 

 what objects so linked to our affections, as those associated 

 with rural life in childhood. Who that appreciates the 

 quietude and smiling plenty, the balmy air and variegated 

 landscape of the country, would not prefer it to the crowded 

 noisy streets, the pestiferous atmosphere and demoralizing 

 influences of the city. It is in the country alone that man 

 enjoys the beauties of nature, as she spreads them out before 

 him in all their wild luxuriance, or as she patiently smiles 

 beneath the improving hand of cultivation. 



