MR. Oliver's address. 7 



as I use the word " head," to personate the thinking and de- 

 vising theorist. Mrs. Hale very justly says, 



" How impotent without the Hand, 



Proud reason's light would shine ; 



Invention might her power apply, 



And Genius see the forms of Heaven ; 



But vain the will, the soul, the eye, 



Had not the hand been given." — The Hand and its Work. 



But even here is a distinct recognition of the head — and I 

 have read many a book, the contents of which were prefaced 

 forth as being the practical results of the writer's experiences, 

 and have always found that the writer's head had been his 

 hand's most valuable and reliable, if not his only auxiliary. 

 He had to think before he could act, and he had to reduce his 

 thoughts to exact method, having precise reference to what he 

 designed or desired to do, before he acted. In fact, his head 

 helped him at both ends of his operations. It helped him to 

 methodize what he intended to put into practice, and it helped 

 in putting whatever of wisdom and of value resulted from his 

 practical operations, into such bookly and readable shape, as 

 reaching the eyes, would teach the head, and direct and con- 

 trol the hands of his fellows of the same craft. 



There are very many persons, all about us, wise in their 

 own conceit, and wise, too, above what is written, who speak 

 disparagingly of what they call book-learning. But book- 

 learning, in matters derived from experience, is nothing else 

 than the record of the hand-practice of some one man, or of 

 some men, who have employed themselves in a succession of 

 experiments in that art or craft of which the book treats. I 

 say " in matters derived from experience," for while I defend 

 the theorist and the student and their suggestions, and would 

 not be deprived of them in my own business, nor commend to 

 you, farmers, to work and toil on without them, in yours, I 

 am fully aware that genius must offer her theories and her 

 speculations upon the altar of experiment, and that experiment 

 herself must ask the aid of the inventive faculty and its result- 

 ant apparatus, from genius, to bring these theories to the test. 

 And that test must not be hurriedly made, and but once for 

 all. It must be a renewed, prolonged, fair, judicious and pa- 



