24 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tlie blacksmith, whose avocation is usually referred to as espe- 

 cially illustrative of the beneficial effects of manual labor. 



Such is the influence of the farmer's work on the physical 

 life. It gives the longest lease of life. Qf course it is equally 

 productive of physical health and vigor. 



That it has reached the limit of its power I do not believe. 

 That the life of the Massachusetts farmer is capable of being 

 yet more extended and physically invigorated, seems to me as 

 clear as that the average length and enjoyment of human life at 

 large are continually increasing under the more peaceful state 

 and higher purposes of advancing civilization. Just as far as 

 he is stimulated by a worthy ambition in his toil — an ambition 

 that regards the toil only as the means to something higher, and 

 therefore not a master to which he is to be enslaved, and by 

 whom he is to be worked to the last point ef endurance, but 

 an helpful servant of his aims — will he find the physical bene- 

 fits of that toil multiplied in himself. When he has learned, 

 with clear judgment and good sense, to hit the golden mean 

 between idleness and drudgery, then shall he realize not only 

 a stronger power of endurance, but a greater energy of enter- 

 prise, from the calling he so wisely serves. 



II. A second element of manhood is found in mental activ- 

 ity, the presence and the energy oi mind. To this result farm- 

 ing may not lead quite as palpably, with as much directness, 

 or in as great measure, as to the physical. But it more or less 

 involves this, and may be made to promote it quite as effectu- 

 ally. It would hardly be possible, I think, even with him who 

 has no higher aim than just to get his living from the soil, to suc- 

 ceed in his purpose without the occasional exercise of reflection, 

 the necessary use of contrivance and plan. All this involves 

 thought, the introduction of mind into his labor. Let him rise 

 to a liigher aim, that of enlarging and perfecting the results of 

 his toil — improving the quality and increasing the quantity of 

 his crops ; let his be the ambition for excellence, superiority in 

 his calling, and inevitably his thought must be as active as his 

 labor. So much of mental activity, therefore, does his calling 

 directly develop. 



And here I say most distinctly and emphatically, that a 

 true farmer is not only a working but a thinking man ; he 

 seeks to comprehend the principles of his occupation. H^rises 



