176 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



and hence the plantation deteriorates in his hands, and requires 

 double the number of laborers to manage it. But the happiness 

 already experienced, and the hope of more, give a double effi- 

 ciency to the labors of the freeman. Hence the amount of hap- 

 piness experienced by the cultivators of a farm, is no bad index 

 of the condition and success of its management. On the same 

 principle, we should expect that the farmer, who has a large 

 and happy family to aid him, would keep his land in a much 

 better state, than he who lives in what is sarcastically denomi- 

 nated single blessedness. I confess that there are some cases 

 where men of this latter description, do manage their farms 

 with great success ; and these cases may seem to refute the 

 principle which I advocate, that the family relation is almost 

 indispensable to good husbandry. But in philosophy, where 

 nine facts conspire to prove a principle, and the tenth seems ad- 

 verse to it, we do not allow the rare anomaly to overthrow the 

 principle, but we lay it aside, in the expectation that we shall 

 understand it better by and by. So we might do with the cases 

 under consideration, which are certainly fewer than one in ten, 

 as I am happy to state. We might say, respecting them, how- 

 ever, that they only prove extraordinary tact in the individuals 

 referred to, in the management of a farm ; and if they were 

 only aided by a happy family, they would take all the premi- 

 ums offered by our agricultural societies. But, upon the whole, 

 I prefer to lay these cases aside for the present, as unexplained 

 anomalies ; hoping that he who addresses you next year, will not 

 find these individuals in his way ; but that no longer satisfied 

 with the Bachelor's Degree, they have aspired after higher hon- 

 ors, and have become Masters of Families, if not Masters of 

 Arts. 



The connection between agricultural pursuits and correct 

 moral habits, is most striking and important. The untiring in- 

 dustry and occupation demanded by these pursuits, were enough 

 to take away half the temptations to vice, by which men are 

 overcome ; for it is a truth none the less valuable because it oc- 

 curs in a nursery song, — 



" That Satan finds some business still 

 Fr: idle hands to do." 



