6 DISCOUESES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



the scafFold and tlic satiiriuilia— and that tlicy might hurl 

 back the veteran armies of all Europe in league against us ? 



II. I liave a word to say concerning Interests. 

 Earthly interests are a great matter — full of ideas and 

 virtues ; and after all, when God puts us on the earth, 

 it is not to dream about heaven, but to prepare for it. 

 [Good! good I] It is by the conquest of earth that man 

 should advance to the conquest of heaven. The holy 

 Book tells that God in his wisdom has made man to 

 establish this world in justice and truth.* These are 

 words which we cannot too often ponder ; most of all, 

 we cannot too closely apply them. 



Ladies and CTcntlemen, the justice which man owes 

 the earth is agriculture, industry, commerce. Agricul- 

 ture holds the foremost place. The earth lies in a 

 lethargic slumber till it is roused by the stout arm of 

 the laborer. It imbibes the sweat of man's broAV, and 

 becomes intoxicated v/itli those bitter and sacred drops ; 

 it becomes disgusted at its native barbarism, and yields 

 itself, actively and gladly, to the transforming and ferti- 

 lizing culture. So the earth, established in justice and 

 truth, becomes the fostermother of multitudes, opening 

 her generous breasts to men of every nation, and pour- 

 ing out to them those great streams of physical life 

 without which moral life itself would speedily die away. 

 The farmer with worthy pride turns over to the artisan 

 the product of his labor, and says. Brother, complete 

 my work and begin your own ! pursue the great toil pre- 

 scribed by God to man. And the artisan takes the fruits 

 of agriculture, summons from every quarter the hidden 

 or refractory powers of nature, subdues the refractory, 

 brings to light tlie liidden, and in his turn creates those 

 wonders which are tlie last utterance of man and of 



* Wisdom, ix. 2, 3. 



