thanks to the only living and true God, for the grand old art 

 upon which the towering fabric of our social being enduringly 

 rests. 



But agriculture is not the only art of civilized society. Per- 

 haps, indeed, at this stage of human advancement, it is not to 

 be considered as the art that gives to our most modern life its 

 distinguishing characteristics. There are arts upon which even 

 agriculture greatly relies — the arts of mechanical and manu- 

 facturing industry. The farmers of Essex are met at Law- 

 rence, one of the principal and busiest centres of this industry 

 in our county, I am sure I interpret their feelings rightly, 

 when I acknowledge the generous, social and official hospital- 

 ity which has been extended to them. Permit me in most of 

 the observations I shall present to you, to prolong the courtesy 

 of this acknowledgment, by considering in some of its phases 

 the dependence of agriculture upon the arts to which this city 

 is devoted. In suggesting the dependence of agriculture, let 

 me not seem to derogate from its just praise. On the con- 

 trary, the highest dignity is claimed for it, in the assertion of 

 i'"'' greatest dependence. The place of loftiest elevation is de- 

 pendant upon all below that sustains it. Agriculture is the 

 highest art, only by virtue of its power of making all the 

 other arts and industries subservient to itself. " The glorious 

 privilege of being independent " of which the poet sings, is a 

 moral not a social independence. Let the farmer rejoice in 

 this privilege, and in the many circumstances of his life by 

 which the virtue also is nourished. The philosophy, however, 

 that claims for the farmer's vocation, and as a ground of es- 

 pecial congratulation, that it makes him independent of society, 

 and the aid of his fellow men engaged in other employments, 

 is based upon a mistake of fact, and an erroneous conception 

 of the principles of human progress. What can be more un- 

 founded in fact ? Tne farmer contracts with the carpenter and 

 mason for his house and barn, he buys his furniture, clothing, 

 meat, flour, implements, frequently his bread, butter, cheese 

 and grain, and from the islands of the Pacific material is 



