36 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



moral and intellectual, and, other things being equal, or 

 nearly so, those States and nations will take and keep the 

 lead, where the people enjoy the highest average moral and 

 intellectual culture. 



We must not, as a nation, accept the Asiatic idea, now 

 largely controlling and crippling Europe, that an increase of 

 population is necessarily attended by a reduction of the 

 wages and the comforts of the mass of the people, and their 

 gradual decline in intelligence and morality. These tenden- 

 cies cannot be arrested by the government, if its form alone, 

 as whether it is a republic or a monarchy, be considered ; our 

 chief ground for confidence must spring from institutions and 

 policies promotive of universal education and the general 

 diffusion of knowledge. 



