26 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



education, literature, arts, science, morals, politics, religion, all 

 these he should mark. All this applies to the farmer just as 

 much as to any other man. It is as much within his accom- 

 plishment. Nay, he has advantages for this which others do 

 not possess. Many a quiet hour for reading and reflection may 

 be had in his country retirement, which merchant and mechanic, 

 in the excitement and rushing enterprise of town and city life, 

 find it difficult to command. 



Out of this mental activity comes a twofold result. First, it 

 lightens the daily toil, makes it less a burden and a drudgery. 



Man is so constituted as to require variety, exchange of labor. 

 It is this which he needs quite as much as absolute repose. 

 This passing from exercise of body to that of mind, and from 

 field work, or domestic cares, to quiet thought and mental 

 culture, not only brings its own direct results in knowledge and 

 enjoyment, but reacts upon the daily labor, making it less a 

 routine and a monotony, adding interest and infusing into it 

 encouragement and hope. 



The second effect of mental activity is to ennoble the labor 

 with which it is connected. There is no dignity in mere toil. 

 Nor is there any disgrace in it. Toil in itself alone has neither 

 merit nor demerit. That comes of the spirit that actuates it, 

 the ends it seeks. In other words, it is in the man, and not the 

 work. The more manly qualities he carries into it, the more 

 manly or noble will be his toil. Of these manly qualities, 

 prominent is the one which we have been speaking, the presence 

 of mind ; a mind always open to all wisdom, able to appreciate, 

 apt to employ it, prompt to turn that wisdom to its purposes, and 

 persevering to press it to its last applications ; a mind that 

 precedes and penetrates and directs the labor, making it efficient, 

 comprehensive, beneficent. Such are the workings and results 

 of mental activity in your calling. And out of it flows social 

 sympathy through your Agricultural Societies, and in many 

 other channels to bless yourself and your neighbors. 



III. There are three reasons why the tiller of the soil should 

 be moved to cultivate social sympathy — why his avocation should 

 develop it in him. First, is the freedom from competition atten- 

 dant on his occupation. The amount of your returns does not 

 depend upon that of your neighbor. That his fields yield 

 abundantly does not a whit lessen the productiveness of your 



