AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



THE FARMER'S HOME AND ITS EMBEL- 

 LISHMENTS. 



From an Address before the Essex Agricultural Society, Oct. 1, 1857 



BY. E. G. KELLEY. 



Not the least formidable opposition to the beautifying of New 

 England homes, arises from the still lingering influence of 

 the Puritans. Our fathers came hither with prejudices equally 

 strong against the highly ornamented hereditary estates — the 

 beautiful architecture of palaces and churches — as against the 

 policy of church government and discipline of the old religions 

 of other countries. Hence the plainest constructed houses — 

 churches without spires or other ornaments, common to this 

 day, with some religious sects. Time has modified these 

 prejudices, but a spirit of asceticism still prevails, which argues 

 upon the principle, that it is wrong to place one's affections on 

 any thing in this world. 



If what some call extravagance is justified at all, it is in 

 improving and beautifying your home, where others can enjoy 

 it around you. It savors not of vanity or personal aggrandize- 

 ment, nor does it lead to forbidden pleasures or vicious lives. 

 On the contrary, as we will soon show you, such expenditure is 

 a profitable investment ; it is the withholding, that tends to 

 poverty. It in fact, fosters that which, in all its tendencies, 

 employments and enjoyments, is the very safeguard and hand- 

 maid of religion itself — the embellished and beautiful, the 

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