MR. Oliver's address. 11 



rant, as had beeu his brother and other eminent Romans, pre- 

 tended idiocy. Each of "the yonng devotees carried gifts to 

 the tutelar god ol the prophetic shrine. That of Brutus, was 

 a golden wand, enclosed within a wooden staif, fit emblem of 

 his own great soul, enslirined, for the time, beneath the mean 

 disguise he had assumed. I am by no means sure that this 

 golden gift did not secure to Brutus, both the response of the 

 oracle and its interpretation. To their inquiries at the temple, 

 it was replied, that "he should reign at Rome who should 

 first kiss his mother." The three hurried back to Italy, and 

 while the king's two sons hastened to their royal home to sa- 

 lute their natural mother, Brutus pretending to stumble, fell to 

 the earth and touched it with a kiss, considering her, as he af- 

 terwards declared, to be the common mother of mankind. 



Now, who of this farming throng ought not so to love this 

 blessed and life-sustaining mother, that he would be willing to 

 kiss her, '• from the rising of the sun even unto the going down 

 of the same," — nay, would even fondle and caress her in his 

 arms, were she a not a little too large for a comfortable hug. 

 But the fondling she asks, and asks but to reward, is of a dif- 

 ferent sort. She invites her children to thrust the hoe and the 

 shovel, deep down into her bowels, and to drive the plough 

 and the harrow down through her skin, yea, "even unto the 

 dividing asunder of her bones and her marrow," never uttering 

 word of complaint, but on the contrary, inviting to the inten- 

 sest and deepest scarification, by gifts bounteous in proportion 

 to the thoroughness and pertinacity of the operation. Who 

 can refuse t-^ love such a mother? Who can refuse to confide 

 in her life-giving and affluent bounties ? You, farmers, you 

 are her special favorites ; 



" You alone cand find 

 The dark recesses of her inmost mind ; 

 In all her trusted secrets, you have part, 

 And know the soft approaches to her heart." — VirgWs ^^neid. 



You know all her necessities, and her wishes, and you know 

 too, that by supplying these readily and copiously, you great- 

 ly enrich both her and yourselves. But we, outside barbari- 

 ans, we consumers only of her bounties, which we can only 



