41 



machines which yield their product to every part of the 

 Union, Avhile Gloucester and kindred ports launch their 

 enterprize upon the sea. Your county is full of intense 

 life, competition of business, sharpness of the faculties, 

 contact and collision of minds, populous growth, and ac- 

 cumulations of wealth have come of this modern upris- 

 ing of genius and skill, and art and manufactures. 



But the second lesson is, that the employments of ag- 

 riculture have reacted with an effect of beauty and fe- 

 licity upon the other and more active departments. It 

 amply repays them for their markets by preserving and 

 strengthening their virtues. Commerce and the arts 

 create the town ; agriculture keeps good and pure the 

 country ; and that State is happiest in wdiich town and 

 country reflect upon each other the advantages and the 

 graces of both. In such a population as j^ours, com- 

 prising these two conditions of society, rural life com- 

 municates through all the avenues of the city the pur- 

 ity of its manners and its tastes 5 while liberal thoughts 

 and liberal arts proceeding from the city impart their 

 invigorating forces to the country. The concentrated 

 activities of the one blend to mutual advantage with 

 the calm and serene occupations of the other ; the so- 

 cial sympathies of both gather strength by the union ; 

 and a Commonwealth of homogeneous character springs 

 up out of the diversities of labor, one and indivisible in 

 interest and in sympathy. Such is the county of Es- 

 sex, such is Massachusetts. It has happened in the last 

 twenty-five years that increasing numbers of our fellow- 

 citizens, having their business in the metropolis or in 

 the other cities and larger towns, by reason of railroad 

 facilities, and from sanitary and moral considerations, 

 have established their homes and their hearts in the 

 6 



