ABOUT FEUrre, FLOTTEES AXD FAEMDfG. 21 



without education. There is a law of God in this matter. 

 That class of men who make the most and best use of their 

 heads, will, in fact, be the most influential, will stand high- 

 est, whatever the theories and speeches may say. This is a 

 " nature of things " which cannot be dodged, nor got over. 

 Whatever class bestow great pains upon the cultivation of 

 their minds will stand high. If farmers and mechanics feel 

 themselves to be as good as other people, it all may be true ; 

 for goodness is one thing and intelligence is another. If 

 they think that they have just as much mind as other 

 classes, that may be true ; but can you use it as well f 



Lawyers, and physicians, and clergymen, and literary 

 men, make the discipline of their intellect a constant study. 

 They read more, think more, write more than the laboring 

 classes. The difference between the educated and unedu- 

 cated portions of society is a real difference. Now a proud 

 and lazy fellow, may rail and swear at this, and have his 

 labor for his pains. There is only one way really to get over 

 it, and that is to rear up a generation of well educated, 

 thinking, reading farmers and mechanics. Your skill and 

 industry are felt ; and they put you, in these respects, ahead 

 of any other class. Just as soon as your heads are felt, as 

 much as your hands are, that will bring you to the top. 



Many of our best farmers are men of great natural 

 shrewdness ; but when they were young they " had no 

 chance for learning." They feel the loss, and they are giv- 

 ing their children the best education they can. Farmers' 

 sons constitute three-fifths of the educated class. But the 

 thing is, that they are not educated as farmers. "When 

 they begin to study they leave the farm. They do not ex- 

 pect to return to it. The idea of sending a boy to the 

 school, the academy, and the college, and then let him go 

 back to farming, is regarded as a mere waste of time and 

 money. You see how it is even among yourselves. If a 

 boy has an education, you expect him to be a lawyer, or a 

 doctor, or a preacher. You tacitly admit that a farmer 



