120 PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 



success that might advantageously compare with the products of 

 the richer soils in other counties. New motives have every year 

 been presented to perseverance in our associated labors. And, 

 it seems the just influence has been produced; for, rarely have 

 we seen an associated body, engaged in any cause, moving such 

 a number of years with so much regularity, and so steadfastly 

 devoted to the object of pursuit. We have very properly kept 

 this great interest of human life distinct from interests and 

 views which it is difficult to advocate without the engagement 

 of strong passions in the cause. Here, different rchgionists and 

 politicians have cordially met, as dependent children on mother 

 earth, and mutually obliged to inquire what is demanded of us, 

 that we may fully realize proffered blessings. It is a subject of 

 gratulation that no violent or evil spirit has ever entered our 

 meetings to interrupt harmony or obstruct the usefulness of labors. 

 We may properly felicitate ourselves, both in review of the past 

 and in prospect of the future. The growing interest in our ex- 

 hibitions, the multitudes who attend them and retire praising the 

 good work that is proceeding, give us a pledge that the young 

 members of the society will discover the importance of perse- 

 verance in good exertions, and never suffer this institution to 

 languish till a more perfect general cultivation shall supersede 

 the utility of it. 



Our work in the cause of an improved cultivation should not 

 be restricted to the interest, convenience, or supply of a single 

 generation, but be governed under the impression that men, no 

 less than crops, exist in succession, and that every man, in pass- 

 ing, ought to employ the powers given him in preparing the way 

 for the comfort and prosperity of successors. This subject, we 

 suppose, does not employ as much thought and attention as its 

 importance demands. Hence the difficulty in persuading men 

 to propagate forest trees of slow growth, though such trees will 

 manifestly be necessary to enable posterity to continue arts not 

 only already begun, but even now deemed necessary to comfortable 

 living. We hope good sense and patriotic desires to meet the 

 wants of coming generations will ultimately eff^ect, in our country, 

 what is enforced by law in some parts of Europe, — the preserva- 

 tion and extension of timber trees. 



