14 



Improvident Society. 



Vol. X[. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Improvident Society. 



Mr. Editor, — I forward you the follow 

 ing, trusting it may stir up to a little rcflcc 

 tion, some who are not much given to efforts 

 of this character. If it should enable any 

 of your readers to see themselves as in a 

 glass, I shall not regret having sent it. 



Y. 



A portion of a discourse delivered before 

 the Society for " the promotion of agri- 

 cultural improvidence," of Poor County, 

 by A. Poorhouse, Esq. 



Friends and fellow citizens, also ladies 

 and gentlemen : 



I am happy to see before me to-day, so 

 large and intelligent an assemblage, inte- 

 rested as they are, and zealous as I have 

 long known them to be, in the great cause 

 we have undertaken. It needs not my as 

 surance to make known to you how modest 

 I feel on this occasion. You have so long 

 known me that it needs not that I should 

 tell you this, but my evident embarrassment 

 will declare it; indeed my modesty you all 

 know perfectly well, far exceeds my talents 

 or my powers of interesting you. Why I 

 have been selected for this remarkable occa- 

 sion I cannot imagine. Nearly all of you 

 have known me from childhood, and not one 

 of you, I can with entire truth and perfect 

 fearlessness assert, will contradict me when 

 I say, that a more simple and ignorant per- 

 son does not exist — one less likely to be of 

 use to his fellow citizens — one less qualified 

 to instruct them in a single thing worth 

 knowing — one more profoundly unacquaint- 

 ed with all the trumpery, science and know- 

 ledge of the day — one who feels himself, 

 however, above the meanness so frequently 

 practiced by those whom I see some disposed 

 to respect, of gaining from men or books the 

 knowledge which it has not pleased Heaven 

 to implant in their minds by instinct and na- 

 ture. Yet with these humble pretensions I 

 have been selected to address you on this 

 interesting occasion. Of one thing I am 

 certain, — and so are you, — that you will 

 have what some of those who are fond of 

 fine language, call the virgin history of my 

 mind. You will have displayed before you, 

 I am proud to say, an intellect totally unem- 

 barrassed by the thoughts of others — one 

 that has never foolishly, I may say, impious- 

 ly, endeavoured to injure by thought or 

 study, the powers Providence gave him. 

 One which, now, afler forty years observa- 

 tion, is as clear of all information as it was 

 at five years of age — one that through all 

 my life has continued to cherish and preserve 



its early lr,ve of doing nothing, and all the 

 torpor, dullness, and indifference that nature 

 gave it. Of these things I can boast, and it 

 is all that I have to be proud of; and to the 

 results and products of an intellect so trained, 

 you are perfectly welcome. May you gain 

 as much by it as I have done. You will not 

 be astonished when I tell you, that for years 

 I have not opened a book — the last I read 

 was Webster's spelling book, but I found so 

 many things in it that I was expected to re- 

 member that I thrust it aside. A flogging 

 that I received from that silly old pedagogue, 

 the late Stephen Slapbotham, disgusted me, 

 and I determined from that moment to let 

 my mind take its own course. And I assure 

 you that nothing has given me greater plea- 

 sure, than by my own experience to refute 

 the ridiculous idea that some foolish persons 

 have attempted to put about, that activity of 

 mind, and what they call industry, are ne- 

 cessary for one's happiness. It is no such 

 thing — the greatest, fullest source of enjoy- 

 ment in this world, is to do nothing, and do 

 it well. Of this doctrine we are all exam- 

 ples, and to its truth and beauty we can all 

 bear testimony. Continue, my friends, to 

 act upon it; you will find yourselves much 

 the better for it in the end. If any of you 

 should be so unfortunate as to be encum- 

 bered with property, you will in this way 

 certainly rid yourself of it. And you may 

 then move about without anxiety, independ- 

 ent as a bird or a fish, without the perplexity 

 or cares of a home — without the vexation of 

 a wife or a child. Happy condition ! who 

 does not look forward to it with hope and 

 happy expectation. Once rid of your mo- 

 ney, and you have gained a great object. 

 Have we not high authority tor calling it 

 the root of all evil ! Should it not then be 

 our aim to waste it as soon as possible ] Be- 

 sides, why should we be ashamed of begging, 

 or of the poor-house? If the large number 

 of our fellow citizens are disposed to labour 

 and support us, why not allow them the pri- 

 vilege? 



Every encouragement is given to us to 

 live upon the public. In Philadelphia they 

 have a palace, where two thousand and more 

 of those who advocate our principles can 

 pass their lives without care or thought. 

 Men from all parts of our happy country 

 are there. Many from parts of it with 

 which I was not acquainted, and speaking a 

 language I did not altogether understand — 

 from Ulster, Munster, Connaught, Tyrone, 

 all our free and enlightened fellow citizens. 

 My heart leapt within me at such a noble 

 sight, and at such a strong evidence in fa- 

 vour of our ideas. I asked myself why not 

 multiply these institutions, why not scatter 



