28 



TRA NS ACTIONS, 



it wliich he never felt before, and a self-respect which shall 

 challenge and secure the respect of the world. 



I do not speak without a knowledge of the exact situation 

 of our small towns and villages. It has been my fortune to 

 live in very many different ones in this and other States, and 

 to have been more or less intimately acquainted with the in- 

 habitants of them all. I am not so sanguine as to suppose that 

 a club would meet with equal success in every place. In 

 some, indeed, there is too much reason to fear that it would 

 fail altogether, from the want of a few leading minds inter- 

 ested in the subject ; but I believe that the number of these 

 would be small, and I know of no better way of meeting the 

 wants of those inquiring and thinking minds, which now form 

 a large part of every community. I know of no better way 

 of convincing the doubtful, that a cultivated intellect is not 

 inconsistent with a body strengthened by honorable toil, or 

 of showing that there is one thing in which all parties can 

 unite — the cultivation of those higher social feelings which lie 

 at the basis of all civilized society. 



A beginning once made, however small, forming a nucleus 

 for a library and a cabinet, enterprising and active minds 

 would create a thousand facilities for enlarging and increas- 

 ing it. Diiiiculties vanish the nearer we get to them. The 

 lion is glad to get out of the way. No man ever succeeded 

 who cherished in inactivity the delusive dream of hope. 



Why, gentlemen, let such a club take up the discussion of 

 the adaptation of flax to your lighter soils, and its probable 

 profit, and I believe it would pay for all the trouble and ex- 

 pense of starting a club in every town and every village in 

 the county. 



Inquiring minds would look into the mode of culture, the 

 extent of the demand, the expense of raising it, and the value 

 of the crop. Facts would be brought out, which would throw 

 light on the subject and encourage the cultivation of the plant. 

 One would be surprised to find that the demand reached the 

 utmost limit of the possibility of supply, and that the farmers 

 of the west raising it for the seed alone, can realize a profit 



