: JOHN p. NORTON'S ADDRESS: 579 



your living without work. The tiller of the soil must always 

 get his bread by the sweat of his brow ; it is doubtless a wise 

 ordinance of the Almighty, that all who gain their own liveli- 

 hood must do it by labor and toil ; if it is not of the body it 

 is of the mind, and the latter involves far more inquietude and 

 uncertainty, and ill health, than the former. The farmer has 

 in his everyday toil the secret of health and strength, and if 

 his profits are smaller they are surer, while his life is on the 

 whole happier and longer. If now by the moderate exercise 

 of his mind he can increase the rewards of his bodily labor, 

 his general condition will be improved, and he will have that 

 just union of mental and physical exertion which tends most 

 decidedly to secure health, happiness and competence. 



His gains are not so large as those of the merchant, or the 

 manufacturer, but they are far more certain, for his bank can- 

 not break, nor his factory burn. His reputation and his aims 

 may not be so high as those of the lawyer, or the politician, 

 but his sleep is sweet, and his conscience untroubled ; he suf- 

 fers no gnawings of disappointed ambition, nor feels the hol- 

 lowness of that success which has been purchased by years of 

 ceaseless anxiety and mental struggles, by a worn-out body, 

 and a satiated, wearied soul. 



His success comes direct from that Ruler of all things, who 

 sends his rain and his sunshine in their season and succession, 

 who has promised that seed time and harvest shall never fail. 

 His life is spent among the genial influences of that season 

 when his fields grow green with lip-springing grass and grain, 

 when the air is filled with singing birds, and the trees with 

 fragrant blossoms ; in the glowing radiance of summer, when 

 the city pours forth its weary denizens to seek' relief in the 

 deep shade of his trees, and by the side of his clear streams ; — 

 in the softened skies of autumn, when the yellow harvest is 

 waving in readiness for his garner, when the clear tinkle of the 

 mower's scythe is heard, and when each tree bends heavily 

 with its burden of ripening fruit ; and in the calm retirement 

 of winter, with his work well done, his barns well filled, his 

 cattle in their stalls, his family and friends around the social 

 fireside. 



