CULTIVATION OF IIEART'S-EASE. 49 



own farm and garden begin to improve, to be more carefully 

 tilled, and to yield better returns. This process, slowly and 

 quietly going on in hundreds and thonsands of places at the 

 same time, begins at length to produce changes in the landscape 

 itself. I, whose memory goes back many years before the first 

 railroad was built, never go out of Boston, in any direction, 

 without being struck with the improvement which has taken 

 place in domestic architecture, in horticulture, in landscape 

 gardening, since I was a boy, — witliout being impressed with 

 the signs of comfort, intelligence and good taste wliich diffuse 

 over the landscape a sort of moral charm, because they arc the 

 indications of .valuable traits of mind and attractive qualities of 

 character. Though a conservative, so called, in politics, I 

 believe in j)rogress ; I acknowledge it and rejoice in it. I see 

 that we have made progress, and are making it, in many things. 

 I am happy that my lot is cast in a progressive land, and that 

 tlie sunshine of hope lies bright upon tlie future that is before 

 us. In material comforts, in the arts of life, in the means and 

 instruments of education, in 'the graces and refinements of 

 civilization, tlie advances which New England has made during 

 the last half century, are most remarkable. Who can deny it ? 

 Who can fail to be thankful for it ? 



I have just now briefly touched upon the benefits which agri- 

 culture lias derived from the gi-owth of commerce and manu- 

 factures in Massachusetts. Tliis is one department of a subject 

 which has to me a peculiar interest ; I mean those common 

 relations and that mutual dependence, which bind together all 

 the members of a civil society which is organized upon a just 

 principle, as ours is. We are all God's children ; arid He is a 

 just as well as a benevolent parent. Whatever benefits one, 

 benefits all; whatever advances one, advances all. When 

 sudden changes occur, it may take some little time to adjust 

 things to tlieir new relations ; but with time all things come 

 roun>i at last. When railroads began to be built, it was sup- 

 posed that the demand for horses would be greatly diminished ; 

 but what has been the result? More horses are employed in 

 carrying passengers to and from the railway stations than were 

 formerly required for all the stage coaches in New England. 

 So some persons fear that that blessed invention, the sewing- 

 machine, will throw many poor women out of employment; it 

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