14 MR. gage's address. 



improvement of society. For, under Providence, 

 there is truth in the observation of the poet — 



" VVhate'er, exalts, embellishes, 

 And renders life delightful, 

 All is the gift of industry." 



It is among the many circumstances, which should 

 highly recommend agriculture to our regard, that it 

 is conducive to health. " A sound mind in a sound 

 body" — not only a great blessing in itself, but ne- 

 cessary to our full enjoyment of every other blessing 

 — is characteristic of the cultivators of the soil. And 

 what is the glitter, by which multitudes have been daz- 

 zled in other lines of life — with their unceasing 

 struggles ; their oft-disappointments ; the wear and 

 tear of their health and spirits — compared with the 

 equanimity and energy of mind, and health of body, 

 which are the farmer's lot ? 



And, it is a consideration of no small importance, 

 that agriculture is highly favorable to the formation 

 of a virtuous character and habits. Your constant 

 employment and attention, guard the mind from many 

 of the dangers to which, in some other pursuits, it is 

 exposed. The contagion of corrupt example, so de- 

 structive often to the moral health of densely peopled 

 places, can act but in a much smaller degree, upon 

 the scattered inhabitants of agricultural communities. 

 You are favorably situated, in a remarkable degree, 

 for a direct parental influence upon your children. 

 And then, again, you labor amidst the beautiful and 

 magnificent works of God. The wonders of vege- 

 tation, — from the first buddings of the tender plant, 

 through all the changes which terminate in the ripe 



