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if 3^011 stand for the interests of agriculture, and if you de- 

 serve the character I have drawn ; and the nation shall hold 

 you responsible if it is not applied. The elements of a high 

 civilization are nowhere more developed or more in the hands 

 of the agricultural class than in Essex : let us see you strike 

 an early blow at the false life that usurps the true vitality of 

 the people. Open the resources of your lands and the en- 

 couragements of your towns, and tr}^ to draw back within 

 wholesome and unfevered influences those who, in delusion 

 and mistake, are thronging the streets of our cities, and daily 

 falling backward in all that belongs to a lofty social culture. 

 Cry to them, as you can well aflbrd to do, that when God 

 made man to dress the soil, he proved his perfect and suffi- 

 cient wisdom. If you have in time past showed discontent 

 yourselves, and told your boys that farming w^as poor busi- 

 ness, retrieve your error before they are far gone in business 

 worse than any forming can be. Call to them that content- 

 ment dwells indeed in the homestead ; and as the faithful 

 spies said of the promised land, "Come up and possess it, 

 for we are well able to overcome it." Then, Avhen by your 

 judicious ejfforts, you have drawn back to your side some of 

 those who have wandered away, may we begin to breathe a 

 clearer atmosphere, and feel that the Simoom that is called 

 Enterprise and means Madness, has passed us with its deadly 

 heat. Then, if you have reasonable success, and others fol- 

 low your example, when the great art of Agi'iculture, first 

 made of the Almighty, has come more nearly to its true esti- 

 mation among the people, may we hope for a pure and lofty 

 civilization, for the prosperity of Liberty, Uprightness, Edu- 

 cation, Science and Art, and that good Religion of God that 

 surmounts and includes the whole ! 



