48 FACT NUMBER THREE. 



ground becomes valuable, it is generally made to yield a 

 pretty good share of its full strength, — its exhaustless riches. 



With the true principle of agriculture, however, we also 

 need, above all things, the adoption of another principle, still 

 more important, more vital, both to individual and national 

 prosperity, — to true greatness and true happiness. We here 

 mean the principle of common honesty ! — of fair, open- 

 handed, every day dealing, as between man and man, and 

 between man and his final accountability. The beauty of this 

 essential principle of life, we are pained to say, has been most 

 fearfully marred of late years by the poor, debasing spirit of 

 speculation— the wild, bewitching wish for instant wealth, 

 — the reckless rush to excessive fortune — the cankering lust 

 of gold ! This spirit is daily seen and felt, here at home, by 

 every one who, with half an eye, measures life and the 

 things of life by the honest standard of time's allotments, 

 while abroad, it is seen and felt, and held as our most innate 

 and closely besetting sin, — our broadest national blot. In the 

 presence of this spirit, the ties of nature, the pride of country, 

 the hope of heaven, all fade away, and even love and law 

 lose all their force. The fatal example, once put forth by a 

 bold spirit, high in power, setting plighted faith and sacred 

 rule at noon-day defiance, and daring all consequences, has 

 worked a lamentable waste in fhe world of moral obligation, 

 and by the mass it is now claimed as a letter patent under 

 the seal of a demi-god, for the commission of any crime, — 

 the infliction of any wrong,— the utter disregard of all pub- 

 lic and all private faith. 



Who, at this day, abides his word or his bond as in days 



