era. There is nothing; that starts ideas like talk, or sharpens them like that. 

 Society is the very spring of improvement ; and of all this, the agricultural 

 life has generally too little. 



For this reason 1 have taken great interest in the Granges; especially in 

 their original intent, of hnnging farmers together, to confer upon their mutual 

 interests and common improvement. Why should there not be clubs, on a 

 smaller scale, and for more familiar intercourse ? They have clubs in cities ; 

 there is far more need of them in the country. Let ten persons meet in one 

 another's houses, once a fortnight, to talk of some subject before agreed upon 

 — soils, manures, methods of culture, what crops to raise and how, or on other 

 subjects out of their immediate line of business ; and I believe they would find 

 interest and excitement in it, and would come away with new ideas, and per- 

 haps, aspirations. Let them take for a subject, the industrial interests of the 

 country, which they ought to understand, and let them read for this, Sam B. 

 Buggies' great report "on the Agricultural Property and Products of the U. 

 S. A.," lately published. Indeed the matters for discussion that would come 

 before them, would lead to, and would require some reading of books. 



And here I enter more deeply into both the merits and difficulties of the 

 case. "Books ! " it may be said, "how can we rind time for books, or money 

 to buy them ! " This latter difficulty, 1 judge, is not so great as it was, years 

 ago. We are growing to be better off. Goodrich's Natural Philosophy, a 

 highly illustrated and beautiful work, costing fifteen dollars, found more than 

 forty purchasers in Sheffield ; and the State Atlas, costing twelve dollars, thirty 

 more. I was told of a man in Southington, (Conn.) when I visited that town 

 some years ago, who found time, amidst his farm-work, to make a study of 

 nature; who imported books from England to assist him; and who pursued 

 his inquiries, with a most earnest and religious spirit. 



But I admit the difficulty about books. And this leads me to speak of the 

 obvious and easy remedy for it — a town library — an established public Horary, 

 as a part of the equipment for our general enlightenment and the elevation of 

 the public mind. We live in an age of books; and books of such moderate 

 cost, that w r e all may have what was utterly denied to the people of former 

 ages ; and which if they had them they couldn't read. Books are the breath 

 of intellectual life to the generations that are now coming upon the stage; and 

 without which any people must sink into notable ignorance and obscurity. 1 

 do not say that book-knowledge makes a man; but I say that it helps him to 

 be the man that this age and this country look for. We are not tenants and 

 drudges, working upon other men's lands, but work upon our own. We would 

 not cultivate our farms only, but we would cultivate ourselves. A man, I hope, 

 is something greater than his possessions, greater than a herd of cattle or a flock 

 of sheep, greater than a house, or farm, or fortune. 



Therefore, I advocate self-culture, as the highest interest and duty that we 

 have to take care of in this world. But I wish to put what I have to say on 

 this subject, in a more distinct form. We want in each of our towns a public- 

 institution for mental improvement. We have schools for the education of our 

 children. We have churches for religious instruction. Is not something fur- 



