ADDRESS. 



ture artizans, merchants, and professional men. Especially 

 are they preparing there to supply the enormous demand 

 which the cities and larger towns are making upon the coun- 

 try. The fact is, that the strong mental excitement, the heavy 

 pressure upon time, the unseasonable hours, the luxurious hab- 

 its, and the want of fresh air and exercise, in city life, ere long 

 break down the strongest constitution ; and in a large propor- 

 tion of cases the children of robust parents are feeble, and, 

 though precocious, are destitute of the bodily hardihood and 

 mental energy essential to eminent success in any pursuit. 

 Hence such children must usually give place to youth from the 

 country, whose decendants in time must yield to others from 

 the same prolific source. Hence, as I have wandered over the 

 hilis and valleys of our land, and have met by the wayside, 

 and on the farm, or in the meanest hovel, with children uncul- 

 tivated, and even repulsive in their appearance, yet healthy 

 and hardy, I have often felt for them no small degree of re- 

 spect, when I recollected that probably, under that rough ex- 

 terior, there lay concealed the future wealthy merchant, or 

 eminent artizan, or distinguished scholar. The refined city 

 beau, or belle, may indeed smile contemptuously at the un- 

 couth manners of the plough boy, who, on his first trip to the 

 city, is staring about the streets with half opened mouth ; but 

 not unlikely that despised rustic will one day rise far above 

 them in wealth, learning, and respectability. At any rate, 

 such transmutations are of every day occurrence in the city. 

 The cause of education is regarded by all intelligent men, 

 especially in a country like our own, as an important national 

 tional interest ; and hence we should inquire what influence 

 is exerteaapon it by agricultural pursuits. An eminently sal- 

 utary influence, is the decided reply. Especially is this the 

 case in respect to popular education, as appears from several 

 considerations. These pursuits, in the first place, aftord more 

 of leisure for study than most others, since the hours of active 

 toil must be so much fewer than those of tlie waking period of 

 the day. The farmer, also, is ever in intimate communion with 

 nature ; and thus an inquisitive and discriminating spirit is ex- 



