THE FARMER MUST KNOW. 88 



Do I exaggerate ? Am I uttering words of mere rhetoric ? 

 The final purpose of all tlic arrangements of Providence in this 

 lower world, as I conceive, is to perfect man himself. It is not 

 merely to multiply the comforts of his physical condition, — to 

 call fortli material beauty and fragrance, — to adorn tlie earth. 

 but to elevate man as man, — to develop his nobler faculties, his 

 intellect, his affections, his tastes, his capacity for the enjoyments 

 of a nature formed but a " little lower than the angels." This 

 is the purpose of all. In the shop of the artisan, the great 

 marts of trade, and on the farm, man is to educate himself, — 

 his reason, his human sensibilities, his reverence for truth and 

 right — and this is the noblest husbandry — this work, the crown- 

 ing work, — not incompatible, I contend, with labor of the hands, 

 but of which well-organized and well-directed, intelligent and 

 free labor is one of the heavenly ordained instrumentalities. 



The elevating influence of knowledge and intellectual culture 

 is not all. They enhance the enjoyments of life, especially 

 among an agricultural population, because they teach one to 

 read and interpret nature, — prepare him to observe and think ; 

 and so many-sided is nature, — so marvellous, if one will look 

 beneath the surface, — so full of mystery, so wonderful are the 

 phenomena which, in the country, daily fall under the eye, 

 connected with the processes of animal and vegetable life, growth 

 and decay, the expansion of the flower and ripening of the fruit, 

 with the vicissitudes of the seasons, — budding spring and myriad- 

 tinted autumn, with the rising and setting sun, with air, and 

 clouds, and dew, with light and shade, varying with the varying 

 hours, that materials for a jdcasing occupation of the thoughts 

 can never be wanting, if only the powers of observation and 

 reflection have been once awakened. Nowhere and in no situ- 

 ation will a cultivated intellect contribute more, in Lord Bacon's 

 phrase, to the "relief of man's estate," or more enlarge the 

 sphere of sober, calm delights. The country is barren of pleas- 

 ures to those who bring to it barrenness of thought, and to such 

 only. Take the single faculty of observation, attention, — how 

 much depends on that ! People engaged in rural occupations 

 have been charged with insensibility to the charms of nature. 

 They move on, it is said with a dull eye. The loveliest spot is, 

 to them but common earth, valued for its productiveness only. 

 Amid the most beautiful creations of the Almighty's hand they 



