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may, I am aware, be imperfectly supplied by a process known to 

 those who fatten fowls for a market, and prepare scholars for ex- 

 amination, commonly called cramming ; by virtue of which a man 

 of average powers of acquisition, and good habits of application, 

 may display before an audience fair fruits of knowledge, the 

 growth, not of the natural wood, but of very recent grafts. But 

 for such a process I have neither the time nor the taste. There 

 seems to me something a little disingenuous in the position of a 

 speaker, who presumes to instruct an audience in a subject of 

 which he was wholly ignorant a month before, perhaps. Between 

 a speaker and his hearers there should always be the relation of 

 truth. Permit me, then, to deal with you in perfect sincerity, 

 and say that I have not the power, nor do I propose, to instruct 

 the farmers and horticulturists of Norfolk in any branch of their 

 calling. I have no other thought than to entertain the audience 

 that I see before me with some reflections in which the subject of 

 agriculture may form a starting point, if not a text. If they be 

 light and desultory, they will be all the easier of digestion. There 

 is a Spanish proverb which says : — " After dinner one should not 

 even think." I shall respect the teaching of the Spanish proverb. 



I propose to occupy your attention with a statement of some of 

 the reasons which should make a Massachusetts farmer contented 

 with his lot. I would fain induce the farmers of Massachusetts to 

 plant and cultivate the herb called Heart's-ease, which the shep- 

 herd boy whom Christiana and Mr. Great Heart saw in the Val- 

 ley of Humiliation, carried in his bosom. It is a wholesome herb, 

 and its breath is sweeter than violets, and I do not think it grows 

 in New England gardens so generally as it should do. I hold it 

 to be a good work to strive to make men contented with their lot. 

 Godliness with contentment, says the apostle, is great gain. Ob- 

 serve how the two things are joined — godliness with contentment. 

 Godliness without contentment may be gain ; but it is not great 

 gain, at least, not the greatest. The goodness which is sour, un- 

 gracious, and repining, — which has no effusions of gratitude to 

 God, or kindliness to man — is a poor and imperfect thing ; it is 

 heat without light, like the warmth of a conservatory ; but godli- 

 ness with contentment is like God's blessed sunshine, at once 

 warmth and light. 



Every human being is the centre of many circles. Some of 



