moral strength of men, his freedom from corroding anxieties and 

 cares, the balance, even as a means of living, ^\■ill be found in 

 favor of rural pursuits. 



If a man love home, the serenity and peace that are found 

 only beneath our own roof-tree and on our own hearthstone, he 

 will cling to the farm. Domestic happiness finds there its most 

 congenial soil. Poets and painters have but expressed the com- 

 mon convictions of mankind, when they have environed their pic- 

 tures of home with the objects and wreathed them with the 

 atmosphere of rural life. But of the general comfort and happi- 

 ness of rural pursuits I need not say much in this presence. 

 There is a view of the matter, however, which has always struck 

 me with great force, but which I do not recollect to have seen 

 brought into distinct notice. It is the visible, palpable result of 

 agricultural labor. There is nothing so requites toil as a visible, 

 palpable result. Most men cast their bread upon the waters, 

 with the trembling hope that it may return in many days. The 

 farmer scatters his seed upon the soil, sees the bow of promise 

 which the hand of the Lord hath bent above him, and lies down 

 to rest assured that summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, 

 will not utterly fail upon the earth. Every day's labor tells. The 

 results of his toil greet him morning and evening, as he goes to 

 or returns from his labor. That rough, unsightly bog-meadow, 

 into which he slumped so often when a boy, now smiles on him in 

 beauty and I'ejoices with him beneath the weight of its luxuriant 

 crops. That twig of a tree, which in a thoughtful moment he 

 planted with care, now shelters him from the noontide sun, or 

 bends to the earth with luscious fruit. Order succeeds con- 

 fusion, the waste places are redeemed, the rough places made 

 smooth. That neat, compact, comfortable dwelling, that well- 

 arranged, capacious barn, with cellar beneath, those solid stone 

 walls, that thrifty orchard, those fields of waving verdure, that 

 sleek and well-fed stock, how they rejoice the eyes and gladden 

 the heart and reward the skill and patient industry and energy 

 of their owner ! 



And the fruits of his toil are not only palpable but compara- 

 tively certain. The earth returns his devotion with even more 

 than woman's fidelity. Year after year she increases the number 



