4 



the products. It is sometimes said that the former times 

 were better than these, and desponding men think the 

 race is deteriorating ; but if our fathers of blessed mem- 

 ory ever had better fruits of husbandry, better cows, or 

 horses, or swine, better needlework, or bread, or sweeter 

 butter, or more delicious sweetmeats, they have left no 

 record of the happy day when they showed them. 

 Heaven be praised ! that the mantle of the fathers has 

 fallen on their children; early vigor of New England 

 life has not entirely passed away with the generations 

 that have gone. 



THE BLESSING OF HEALTH. 



The first indebtedness of which I shall speak is for the 

 health which comes so naturally to the farmers' employ. 

 What constitutes health ? It is not the simple'absence of 

 pain or disease. It is not to be defined by negatives. 

 Health is the vigor of strong muscles, which make the 

 man robust in action, elastic in step, ready for duty, able 

 to overcome obstacles and to grasp and hold for advan- 

 tage the blessings which^are always within the reach of 

 him who has power to take them. Ability always finds 

 opportunity. Health is in the vigorous lungs which take 

 in freely the pure air of heaven, fill the blood with oxy- 

 gen, cleanse it from the constant waste of the system ; 

 and in the steady pulse which sends the cleansed current 

 as a red river of life through the whole body, giving 

 constant renewal of strength, and grace, and beauty to 

 every part. Health is the power to take the good things 

 of God and digest and assimilate them for all the uses of 

 our manifold life ; what is a man good for who has not a 

 good digestion '.' 



Health is the potency of the brain, transmitting its 



