332 



Happiness. — TTie Evils of War. 



Vol. VL 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Happiness. 



Every emploympnt, calling, or pursuit, that 

 the mind can sugjjest, is tried in the search 

 after happiness. It seems to be almost an 

 universal opinion, that whoever has least care, 

 trouble and sorrow, and enjoys most the bless- 

 ings of health and contentment, with a rea- 

 Bonable share of the smiles of fortune, enjoys 

 most happiness. But in what employment 

 or profession shall we look for all these bless- 

 ings 1 Not in the mercantile life, v/here, 

 oftentimes, our destinies hang by a single 

 thread; not in the busy whirl of politics, 

 where all is commotion and confusion; not in 

 the employment of a soldier, dealing in the 

 lives of his fellow-men. No — but we may 

 find them among the cultivators of the soil; 

 with him who is neither dependent on the 

 charities of his fellow-men, nor liarassed with 

 the care of immense possessions; who neither 

 bows to riches, nor spurns honest and virtuous 

 poverty. 



The cultivation of the soil is a noble em- 

 ployment! The farmer may be called God's 

 nobleman, for he labours in his vineyard and 

 enjoys from him peculiar blessings. A glo- 

 rious independence is his; he is happy in 

 making the living things that are under his 

 dominion happy; he walks over his verdant 

 and grassy meadows, and inhales the fresh 

 breeze laden with the perfume of flowers, and 

 is greeted on every side by the kind and 

 cheerful looks of his domestic animals; even 

 the feathered songsters of the grove, accus- 

 tomed to his presence, regale him with their 

 sweetest melody, and scarcely hop out of his 

 path as he passes along. The scenes that 

 are ever before him are calculated to lead 

 iiim to the contemplation of that "Source di- 

 vine whence all his blessings flow." 



The nursery of greatness is in the hills and 

 valleys; from them many of our most eminent 

 bards, divines and statesmen, have sprung, 

 and of these we have numerous examples, 

 both in ancient times and in the present day. 

 Agriculture was a favourite employment 

 amongst the Romans, Grecians, and Egyp- 

 tians. Cincinnatns was called from his plough 

 to rule over a rebellious people, and after re- 

 storing their turbulent spirits to peace, and 

 creating harmony amongst them, he again 

 returned to his plough. Franklin, although 

 not a practical farmer, yet delighted in 

 eirriculture, and mankind owe him a great 

 debt for his valuable improvements in the 

 science. But the brightest example is Wash- 

 ington! He was not only a theoretical, but 

 also a practical farmer. We are told that 

 he delighted to see his wheat-crowned fields 

 waving in golden ridges before the wanton 

 breeze, and gaze upon his verdant hills and 



meadows spotted with flocks and herds; and 

 that whenever opportunity offered, he would 

 retire from the turmoils of war, or the busy 

 afl^airs of state, to seek repose upon his be- 

 loved farm. 



Agriculturists are the pillars on which the 

 nation rests, and agriculture is the great 

 source of individual and national prosperity: 

 on it depends, in a great degree, both manu- 

 factures and commerce. The farmer may sit 

 by his domestic hearth and listen to the shock 

 in pecuniary aflliirs, and feel secure. Sur- 

 rounded with plenty, he can smile upon them 

 all ; his farm is to him a little world ; it sup- 

 plies him with all the necessaries of life, and 

 he wants no more. M. 



Hillside, April 28, 1842. 



The Evils of War. 



The physical evils of war defy calculation 

 or estimate; but the climax of its mischiefs 

 will be found in its moral results. Some of 

 its evils are in its spirit of malice, its deeds 

 of rapacity, its v;rath, its revenge, and in un- 

 bridled lust! (See the horrors of this sort I 

 following the sieg^e and capture of the city of i 

 Badajos by Wellington.) War is steeped in i 

 malevolence, it reeks with pollution; it is a ' 

 mass of sin, a system of gigantic wholesale i 

 wickedness ; it is a hotbed of the foulest, fierc- j 

 est, deadliest passions; it teaches man to harm f 

 and to hate his fellow man; it makes the 

 slaughter and destruction of mankind a sci- 

 ience, a profession, a livelihood, a support, 

 and a road to fame, wealth and power! The 

 war system incorporates every vice, and ex- I 

 eludes nearly every virtue. It is a concen- I 

 tration of nearly all crimes, injustice, fraud, ij 

 theft, robbery, violence, rapine, lust and muf- I 

 der. There is nowhere seen such a theatre 

 of unrningled, unmitigated, outrageous cru- 

 elty and crime as a field of battle, if we ex- 

 cept therefrom the exhibit of a city taken by 

 storm, and given up by the conquerors to be 

 sacked, devastated, and its inhabitants aban- 

 doned to massacre and ruthless, relentless 

 destruction. War debases the intellect by 

 engaging it in the pursuit of a very large 

 proportion of the evils wherewith mankind 

 can be afflicted ; it sears the conscience, it 

 steels the heart, it brutalizes the soul ! — It is 

 one vast laboratory of mischief. It blunts the 

 whole of the spiritual feelings; it destroys 

 every sound sentiment of religion; it with- 

 draws multitudes from all thought of their 

 Creator and their God ; it sinks them into the 

 lowest pits of sin : in a word, it is in every 

 form and aspect, in all its details, totally op- 

 posed to the Christian religion, the divine 

 life, the doctrines of the gospel, the life and 

 example of the Saviour, and the commands 

 of the Almighty. — Ledger. 



