28 ME. gray's address. 



Those full, maturo, immcasural)le stores, 



That, waving- round, recall my wandering song," 



There is little time for idleness, the parent of many vi- 

 ces. But v/hen toil ceases, necessary rest must succeed. 

 Hence, there is much sound philosophy as well as prac- 

 tical wisdom in the practice of sending boys from our 

 cities to engage in manual labor, in consequence of the 

 influence it exerts upon their vicious propensities. 



It has been thought, I know, that labor is a curse ; 

 but when man was doomed to gain his bread by the 

 sweat of his brow, fallen as he was, it became the great- 

 est blessing. Such a requisition did not arise from the 

 idea of retribution, but from that of mercy. It furnish- 

 es one of the brightest assurances, that the Deity, tho' 

 justly incensed, has not given up our race to the hope- 

 less consequences which disobedience might have incur- 

 red, for the effect of labor is to prepare the mind for the 

 reception of moral and religious truth. This is fully 

 conhrmed by experience. Who ever heard of riots and 

 mobs among farmers. Farming communities are uni- 

 formly more virtuous and more religious than those 

 whose occupation leads them into scenes of greater 

 temptation. 



Setting aside, then, all other considerations of a pe- 

 cuniary and temporal nature, it is my settled conviction 

 that if any of your sons, after having acquired a thor- 

 ough agricultural education, were to settle down to the 

 tilling of the soil, they would be much more likely to 

 lead happy and honest lives, and go to heaven at last, 

 than it they were to engage in the strifes of political, 

 professional, or mercantile pursuits, and obtained all 

 the wealth which their ambition could desire. 



The employment of the farmer seeir.s l)est fitted to 

 our present condition, and tends, more directly than 

 any other, to prepare men for that future condition 

 whither all of us, whether we will or no, are so rapidly 

 hastening. 



There are but two objections to the plan here suggest- 

 ed ; the first is, the cost of such an education ; the 

 second, the time required to obtain it. We may pay too 



