220 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



this, as he who walks continually amidst nature's works, and 

 who thus has opportunity to interpret her language] 



1 know the idea has prevailed, that the labor must be done 

 by one class of men, and the thinking by another. A priori 

 reasoning must have taught us that this is a false idea, and ex- 

 perience teaches us the same truth. If it had been the inten- 

 tion of the Creator, that physical and mental labor should have 

 been disconnected. He would have given the body to one class 

 of beings and the mental organization to another. So, too, ex- 

 perienced teachers that labor, where mind is wanting, is little 

 productive, and that the mental powers are far less active when 

 the body is not perfected and kept in a vigorous condition, by 

 the energy which labor imparts. A sound mind can only exist 

 in a sound body, and the exercise of each is the condition of its 

 soundness. 



The condition, then, of the farmer, is favorable for the ad- 

 vancement of the science of agriculture, if he would tax the 

 body less, and the mind more. He can well do this, for, in pro- 

 portion as his labor becomes directed by science, does it become 

 more productive — in other words, less labor will produce the 

 same results, and thus, he has more time for mental cultivation. 

 For example, if, by superior skill, he can realize the same product 

 from one day's labor that he formerly did from two, he has 

 twice as much time as he had before, a portion of which he 

 might dedicate to mental pursuits. So, too, the agriculturalist 

 can depend on annual seasons of leisure with more certainty 

 than those of most other avocations, — seasons, when nature, 

 as if exhausted, retires within herself, to recover her wonted 

 energies, and gain strength for future activity, and forbids the 

 husbandman to ply his accustomed labors. With the time 

 which he thus has at his disposal, with a mind intent on suc- 

 cess, with a spirit of inquiry which he might carry into all his 

 labors, watching nature in her operations, submitting theories 

 to the test of experiment on a small scale, and at little risk, com- 

 paring results with one another (as we are met to do this day,) 

 the practical farmer is placed under conditions most favorable 

 for enlarging the field of agricultural science, and could hope to 

 attain all that could be attained under any other circumstances. 



