J. S. C. KNOWLTON'S ADDRESS. 559 



first step in the never-ending march of improvement. He has 

 but begun to learn. It will not matter what may be his posi- 

 tion in life, he will ever find something to learn, and a way to 

 learn it. No class of people are more favorably situated than 

 are the farmers, to make this self-improvement. The world of 

 facts, in which they move, has capacity. It is filled with 

 ideas. They may be found in fields and woods, on the hill-top 

 and in the valley, in stones, and trees, and running brooks. 

 Flowers and fruits, the starry sky and the viewless winds, 

 animate and inanimate nature, are the farmer's untiring preach- 

 ers of truth. With an eye and an ear for truth, the yeoman 

 may be upon his farm like Adam in the garden. He may give 

 a name to everything he sees ; and not only name it, but learn 

 its nature and properties so as to teach them to others. And 

 this is education ; an acquisition more precious than legacies of 

 wealth. It makes every man his own philosopher. It gives 

 him mental force and activity. He becomes an observing, a 

 thinking man ; and from the fountains of his thought there 

 wells up a wisdom that, to his practical life, is worth more than 

 books contain, or lecturers impart. Like the rock of Moses, 

 when touched by an inquirer's wand, his mind opens, and 

 knowledge and wisdom gush out. It is practical thought, 

 never-ceasing observation ; and with lightning speed it runs 

 from causes to consequences, and sees the end from the begin- 

 ning. Society, thus self-educated, ever acquiring and ever 

 imparting knowledge, becomes one great Lancastrian school, in 

 which all are teachers, all are learners. 



There is still another branch of this subject which should 

 receive a brief consideration. 



Thirdly : Moral Cultivation. 



That I may not trespass too far upon the more important 

 departments of the exhibition, to which this day is devoted, I 

 shall, in conclusion, glance at one only of the aspects of this 

 form of improvement. It is that of right — the foundation of 

 the moral sense — and its administration by Justice ; which 

 iconology has embodied in the form of a goddess, blind to all 

 but the balance she holds in her hand. 



We live in the midst of a rabble of wrongs. Yet it is un- 



