2 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



peaceful and hallowed home. A German writer says, " He who 

 cannot comprehend the beautiful has no heart for the good." 

 " Tlic apprehension of elegance and of excellence usually enters 

 the mind together." Cowpcr truly says : — 



" Religion does not censure or exclude 

 Unnumbered pleasures harmlessly pursued ; " 



and after detailing those of rural life, he adds : — 



" These, these are arts pursued without a crime, 

 That leave no stain upon the wing of time." 



It would be a comparative waste of time to contrast the 

 morals connected with home, and the best of lionie influences, 

 with those of the homeless and less cared for. Daily are 

 instances before you ; no events of life are more painfully 

 familiar ; you all know and deprecate them, and anticipate the 

 tirade we should give you in their detail. We would rather 

 persuade to the possession of such homes as will induce the 

 domestic and social virtues to take up their permanent abode, 

 and to be cherished, loved and practised by every inmate — 

 hourly inculcated by the presiding genius of the place, the 

 homo motlicr, who here makes tlie first impressions on the 

 future man, whose deep affection for her will be his talisman 

 through life ; her memory a monitor to prompt him to every 

 good, and to warn him of erring danger. 



We come now to the independent farmer, who, as Dodsley 

 says : — 



" Fears no man's frown, nor cringing waits to catch 

 The gracious nothing of a great man's nod." 



We know our man ; he is an antagonist against whom the club 

 of Hercules is impotent, — whom the lever of Archimedes cannot 

 move, — who will have the mountain removed to the sea before 

 there's faith for him. The old fashioned farmer has strong 

 prejudices — is wedded to his long established habits, and forti- 

 fied against any and all innovations. 



If an artful schemer succeeds, as has been done in some 

 instances, in sinking for him half his property in a railroad, 

 which has, perhaps, cut his farm in twain, and ever after as the 

 steamo-motive, as he calls it, whistles by, frightenhig his horses, 



