SIMON BROWN'S ADDRESS. 651 



and daughters ; farmers sons need not leave the favorite pursuit 

 of their fathers, and go into the learned professions, from the 

 erroneous idea that they are more honorable or profitable. 

 Farmers' daughters need not despise the delightful and 

 healthful employment of the dairy, the kitchen, or the loom, 

 and seek elevation in the miserable pursuits and fashions of 

 the city. 



Nothing conduces more to the elevation and refinement of 

 the mind than the study of nature ; the man who holds fre- 

 quent communion with nature, and studies and obeys her 

 laws, is always made a better and happier man. 



But it is said that the working man cannot study ; that 

 study and labor are incompatible and uncongenial. Washing- 

 ton and Franklin both possessed that kind of knowledge which 

 enabled them to be eminently useful to the world, and yet both 

 were emphatically laboring men; laboring not only in directing 

 others, but with their own hands. Many other signal examples 

 might be cited to strengthen the point, were it necessary. 



" Manual labor, when not excessive, invigorates the body, 

 and rouses the mind. Muscles strengthened by exercise, and 

 a brain refreshed by pure blood, enable the mind to conceive 

 with clearness, and act with vigor and force. The delicate 

 lark soars high, but soon falls ; it is only the eagle, with broad 

 and strong wing and clear eye, that can sustain long flights in 

 the upper air, and gaze at the sun. 



" The man with a learning mind, who digs the ground, or 

 sows the seed, makes rapid progress. He sees the benevolence 

 of God in every opening bud and blushing flower. He learns 

 lessons of utility, of design in the natural world ; and with a 

 soul enlarged, he applies to books and art, the exponents of 

 other men's minds, — and looks into his own to discover the 

 laws by which it is governed, and the links by which he is 

 bound to his fellow men. 



" The working man, in all ages of the world, has been more 

 successful in doing good, in advancing the interests of human- 

 ity, than a man learned only iu book knowledge. The latter 

 may desire to do as much, but never can accomplish it, being 

 ignorant of the material on which he is working. 



" As the world advances, its workers take a higher position ; 

 the dignity of labor becomes apparent. The time draws near 



