THE MIND AND THE SOIL. 27f> 



THE MIND AND THE SOIL. 



In cultivating the soil, we have our seed-time and 

 our harvest-time ; and we all very well know, that 

 if good seed is not deposited in good time, the har- 

 vest will either be scanty or altogether fail. We 

 can reap only what we sow, unless it be the weeds 

 and noxious plants which spring up spontaneously 

 from our neglect. So it is with the mind. It has 

 its seed-time and its harvest-time ; its vernal season 

 of youth, and its summer season of manhood. And 

 the good seed we sow in the young mind will as as- 

 suredly grow and give its increase as that which we 

 deposite in the soil. Our crops tend to increase our 

 wealth and add to our animal enjoyments. The im- 

 provement of the mind not only tends to these de- 

 sirable ends by aiding the labour of the hands, but it 

 tends also to knowledge, to virtue, to happiness. 



Do we estimate these things rightly, and assign 

 to each its relative value 1 Do we not graduate the 

 wages of the labourer who cultivates our soil by the 

 measure of good he can render us 1 And do we not 

 graduate the wages of the teacher, who cultivates 

 the minds of our children on a very different princi- 

 ple, by the small amount which his wants or his 

 limited capacity induces him to take ? While we 

 make merit the criterion of our choice in the culti- 

 vation of the soil, do we not too often make the want 

 of it the criterion in choosing the cultivator of the 

 mind ? And yet all must acknowledge that qualifi- 

 cation and excellence are as much more important 

 in the latter than in the former, as mind is superior 

 to matter, as a good man is superior to a good crop. 

 Who would not feel a higher pride in rearing a fam- 

 ily of intelligent, virtuous, and useful children, than 

 in rearing a fine beast, or in raising a great crop of 

 corn ? Let us try to mend in this matter ; to get 

 good labourers in the mental and moral no less than 

 in the vegetable field of culture. Thin shall our 

 children " rise up and bless us." 



