MR. stone's address. 29 



plants and flowers, and to classify them — enough of natural 

 history, to know the habits of the animal, feathered and insect 

 tribes — and enough of physiology, to recognize the laws of 

 health, and the secret of prolonged life. In a word, I would 

 have him a perfect master of bis noble calling, so far as de- 

 pends on education. And it is for this reason, that I desire to 

 see our Common Schools, where the majority of our children, 

 and nearly every farmer's son receives his entire education, 

 fostered with increasing care, and made equal to the highest 

 intellectual cultivation that stops short of the University. I 

 insist upon this high standard, because intelligent labor is bet- 

 ter and cheaper for those who hire, than ignorant, — because I 

 wish to see agriculture placed in its true position before the 

 world, and dignified in the eyes of its own sons — because I 

 would banish forever the false notion, that physical toil is in- 

 compatible with intellectual culture — and because I would not 

 have withdrawn from the plough, one ray of the glory that en- 

 circled it, when Cincinnatus quitted it to command the Roman 

 Armies, or our own Washington, to be the Saviour of his 

 Country. 



In the remarks now offered, I have made no reference to 

 farmer's daughters. I would not, from this cause, be supposed 

 to cherish indifference to their intellectual improvement. Far 

 from it. The advantages I demand for the son, I claim for the 

 daughter. When, in the olden time, a prayer was offered, 

 '•that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth," it 

 was added, " that our daughters may be as corner stones, pol- 

 ished after the similitude of a palace." In my plea for educa- 

 tion, I can make no distinction in the sexes that God has not 

 made. I believe the best education, and the fullest develope- 

 ment of their intellectual powers, that circumstances will per- 

 mit, is the right of both, — of the sister as much as the broth- 

 er. If knowledge is a blessing to the latter, it can be nothing 

 less to the former. The purpose of female education, as is 

 justly remarked by a successful female educator,* is to lead 

 the sex " in the path of duty — to make better daughters, wives 



*Mrs. Phelps. 



