MR. SALTONSTALL S ADDRESS. 5 



from a sort of moral duress. Whenever the inflamed 

 one-idea partizans of any cause, however good, deal in 

 denunciations of those who do not see eye to eye with 

 them, as to its importance, or the mode of effecting it — 

 it is a violation of their neighbors' rights. 



" Who with another's eye can read ? " 



It woidd be no greater assumption in a man to demand 

 of others, to read with his concave spectacles, when 

 their eyes require convex glasses, or none at all, than 

 pertinaciously to insist on their co-operation with him in 

 the promotion of any cause, according to his particular 

 views. 



We have sometimes been reminded of the sufferings 

 of the harassed poet under vexatious importunities : 



" Shut, shut the door, good John, fatigued, 1 said, 

 Tie up the knocker, say I'm sick, I'm dead. " 



Much good and much evil have, no doubt, come of this 

 tendency to association. We believe our society to be 

 free from all objections. It is open to all — the terms 

 of admission are such that no one who desires to be- 

 come a member of this association of farmers, is ex- 

 cluded — but no one has been pressed into it. Its ob- 

 ject is one of the most important which can engage the 

 attention of man — improvement in the cultivation of 

 the earth — the increase of productions which are essen- 

 tial to human existence. Its mode of operating is, by 

 exciting a generous emulation among farmers, and by- 

 promoting habits of industry, temperance and economy of 

 labor, wdiich tend not only to improve the condition of 

 the agricultural class, but to the happiness of the whole 

 community. 



The object of these associations is vastly comprehen- 

 sive. It embraces whatever can tend to the improve- 

 ment of agriculture and horticulture in all their branches, 

 and to the increase of the quantity and improvement of 

 the quality of the productions of the earth. These are 

 objects worthy the attention of the enlightened states- 

 man, and yet they are within the reach of every indus- 

 trious husbandman. 



