J. S. 0. KNOWLTON'S ADDRESS. 557 



for any expenditure for ornament. Indeed the chief ornament 

 of a farmer's house consists in the absence of all ornament, 

 and the prevalence of an unadorned simplicity. And yet by a 

 little exertion his dwelling may be made attractive. Success 

 is found in the simple rule of having " a place for everything, 

 and everything in its place." A few trees, shrubs, and flowerS; 

 please the senses, and develop, while they gratify a taste for 

 the beautiful in nature and in art. These, it is true, are the 

 little incidents of life ; but in connection with physical and so- 

 cial enjoyment, they are untold wealth. 



But as Satan scaled the walls of Eden, and turned its bliss 

 into woe, so may the paradise of the yeoman be converted 

 into a pandemonium of wretchedness, by opening its gates to 

 those evil habits of living that do violence to man's phys- 

 ical organization. It is a fact, philosophically established, that 

 every infraction, by man, of the laws of his animal life, is fol- 

 lowed by an inevitable retribution. A retribution it is, upon 

 intemperance and its brotherhood of vices, that palsies the 

 physical energies j prostrates the mental powers 5 quenches, 

 as with the wave of oblivion, the moral sensibilities ; dries up 

 the fountains of social life ; sweeps away, as a whirlwind, the 

 accumulations of years of thrift ; and blackens its pathway like 

 a consuming fire. 



The ox never dies of intemperance ; why, then, should 

 man ? Animal life they have in common ; the ox obeys the 

 laws of his nature, and is safe ; while man, gifted with higher 

 faculties, perverts his nature, and sinks to a depth of degrada- 

 tion to which brutes never descend. His physical organization 

 and life should therefore be man's continual study ; and the 

 instincts of nature, under the guidance of reason, should be 

 his '•' cloud by day, and pillar of fire by night." 



I proceed to the consideration of another branch of this 

 subject. 



Secondly i Intellectual Cultivation. 



Time need not be wasted, in such an assembly as this, in 

 speaking of the utility, importance, necessity even, of educa- 

 tion in its largest and most liberal sense. It is felt and 

 acknowledged by all men. Presumptuous may seem the sug- 



