ADDRESS 



BY REV. A. N. BENEDICT, OF SOUTHFIELD. 



Mb. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I cannot flatter myself with 

 the expectation of saying anything to you specially original or novel. If I 

 shall bring before you some things that others have overlooked, or neglected : 

 things familiar, but important ; and you look upon them with another's eyes, 

 your piesent attention may bring some pleasure and profit. I have chosen as 

 my general theme, the Educated Farmer. 



The general idea of education is to develop, to draw out, to discipline all 

 the natural gifts and endowments of the being. Education is not creation. 

 You cannot get out of a thing what is not first in it. The seed contains the de- 

 termination (the absolute direction to a certain end, ) of the future plant. No 

 culture can give to it some fixed end not included in the seed plan. No man 

 can say "I will plant rye and raise wheat, " or, "I will sow oats and raise 

 barley," and do it. A man may say, " I will make of my boy a great law- 

 yer;" but the saying is one thing, the doing another. Owen Glendower boast- 

 ingly said, " I can call spirits from the vasty deep!" A young English prince 

 hearing him, said ; '* Why, so can I, or so can any man ; but will they come 

 when you do call for them?" 



Though you cannot change the radical determination of the seed, you may 

 by culture make the plant more perfect in form and prolific in fruit. There is 

 not this analogy between man and his occupation. Nature does not send out 

 her children labeled poet or painter, minister or magistrate, and say they can be 

 this and nothing more. Humanity is blessed with a versatility of talent or ca- 

 pacity. Each one may be capable of engaging in a variety of occupations, 

 — some more and some less, — with a fair measure of success; yet by natural 

 endowments they are better adapted to some than others. Nothing is more 

 certain than that natural adaptations and individual choices are not always in 

 harmony. You may have known some who were persistent in occupying a 

 pulpit, when they could dispense pills and powders with more success ; and 

 some laboring in the law who would do far better by working in leather. Ed- 

 ucation properly conducted tends to discover the natural adaptations, and di- 

 rect the choices in harmony therewith. But if nature has not given the adap- 

 tation in capacity, no education, even with a five-year-old cattle power, can 

 draw it out. Said one minister to another, "Some of your audience did not 

 understand you yesterday, your language was above them." "Ah," replied the 



