AGRICULTURAL HEART-WORK. 23 



tliougli you shoiiUl, to the utmost extent of your ability, — will 

 still be very imperfect ; and the young farmor, blinded by his 

 little knowledge, to the real advantages of his situation, will 

 not be satisfied till he goes to seek his fortune, whether he liud 

 it or not. 



It is not knowledge, then, that constitutes the first great 

 want of the farmer. It is the spirit of content. It is the love 

 of his occupation. It is an intelligent respect for his position 

 and calling among men. And in order to these, there is needed 

 heart-work ; that kind of culture which a man carries on in 

 his own bosom ; that transformation of his nature whereby 

 he "grows in grace;" that development of thought, feeling, 

 energy and zeal which continually approximates the perfect 

 man. I do not say that the farmer has any special need of 

 these things ; that a stronger necessity lies upon him than upon 

 other men. These things are the prerequisites of success to any 

 and every man, whatever may be his calling. It is because all 

 men need them, that the farmer needs them, and for that rea- 

 son alone. In one of the novels of Walter Scott — I think it 

 is Red Gauntlet — David Latimer, a young gentleman, one of 

 the heroes of the tale, encounters Wandering Willie, a blind 

 fiddler, with whom he has a playful trial of skill in fiddling. 

 The yoiuig man executes his scientific flourishes with all the 

 skill of a Paganini, slipping, with flying fingers, from one end 

 of the finger-board to the other, and bringing out the tones in a 

 manner that he supposed would astonish his rival. Wandering 

 Willie, in his turn, takes the instrument, and goes through with 

 a very exact, but very laughable imitation of the other's perform- 

 ance. At length the old man stopped of his own accord, and 

 as he had sufficiently rebuked the other, by his mimicry, said 

 in his broad Scottish accent, " But for a' that, ye'll play very 

 weel, wi' a little practice, and some gude teaching. But ye 

 maun learn to throw the heart into it, man, to put the heart 

 into it." In this one particular, at least, farming and fiddling 

 Btand upon common ground. In order to success in either, the 

 heart must be thrown into the work. What men do reluctantly, 

 they never do well. Slave labor, especially in husbandry, never 

 reaches any but slovenly results ; and a man, who while lie 

 cultivates his farm, hates his occupation, is just as much a slave 



