24 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



such wide areas, and with such startling^ rapidity, as in the 

 case of savage man. On the North American Continent, in 

 the West Indian Islands, at the Cape of Good Hope, in 

 Australia, New Zealand and Van Diemen's Land, the human 

 denizens of vast regions have been entirely swept away, in 

 the short space of three centuries, less by the pressure of a 

 stronger race, than through the influence of a civilization 

 they were incapable of supporting. And [he continues] we, 

 too, the foremost laborers in creating this civilization, are 

 beginning to show ourselves incapable of keeping pace with 

 our own work. The need of centralization, communication 

 and culture calls for more brains and mental stamina than the 

 average of our race possess. An extended civilization like 

 ours comprises more interests than the ordinary statesman or 

 philosophers are capable of dealing with, and it exacts more 

 intelligent work than our ordinary artisans and laborers are 

 capable of performing. Our race is overweighted, and 

 appears likely to be drudged into degeneracy by demands 

 that exceed its powers." 



Now, the currents of thought set in motion by such reflec- 

 tions as these, are manifold ; but we must necessarily direct 

 attention to one or two. Of their general truth there can be no 

 question. That not only our statesmen and philosophers, but 

 our average citizens, need a greater fund of ability and mental 

 stamina, is manifested by the want, the misery, the degradation 

 and the filth which exist in all the cities of Christendom, and 

 which offend the taste and conscience of all self-respecting 

 men. Yet the intelligence of man would seem to be sufficient 

 to deal with these. Turn where we will, we can find defects 

 and evidences of incapacity ; and yet, when we view closely 

 and calmly even the most flagrant examples of our shortcom- 

 ings, they seem to take their origin in moral rather than in 

 mental insufficiency. The profouudest miseries which either 

 individuals or nations suffer from, arise from mistakes of con- 

 duct. And these mistakes arise not so much from weakness 

 of intellect, as weakness of will. It may be true, that, — 



"The hands that rounded Peter's dome, 

 And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 

 Builded better than they knew." 



