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all the arts in the world, is, and ever must be, thoroughly em- 

 pirical. No rules for it can be stated beforehand that shall 

 be general ; no methods contrived that will work well always. 

 The cultivator must experiment and try ; compare and study 

 results, and try again. He will not long believe with Licbig 

 that the ashes of a plant contain all things needed for its 

 growth, nor with later chemists, that the analysis of a handful 

 of soil would give a certain indication of the composition of 

 the whole field. He sees, with the plain eye of common 

 sense, that in such a pursuit an infinity of causes must be 

 concerned, and therefore the joint efiect cannot be predicted, 

 but must be always found by observation. And thus he is 

 the man to encourage the study of all natural science, whether 

 in the mutations of temperature, the probabilities of weather, 

 the habits and movements of insects, the knowledge and 

 agency of beasts and birds, the reactions of all chemical 

 forces, and the growth of every green thing, from the hem- 

 lock to the herdsgrass. I might dwell here long ; but I hasten 

 to say that agriculture is the Encourager of Art. 



Possibly I may here encounter a doubt ; for one may ask if 

 the painter, the poet, and the sculptor, were not always more 

 at home and better welcomed in the city than the country, in 

 the palace more than the homestead. This may be, and yet 

 be more a statement of what has been, than of what might, 

 or ought to be. For it is still true, that if the patronage of 

 the artist be in the metropolis, his best inspirations are far 

 oftener than otherwise drawn from nature unsubdued, or the 

 gentleness of country life. And considering the insatiate and 

 immortal character of that aspiration that makes the artist to 

 be what he is, may we not reckon that as much for his en- 

 couragement that gives him food and material for thought, 



