11 



evenings ! The truth is, no other class of persons has half the time for general 

 reading that the farmer has. Besides, whilst other occupations require that the 

 mind should give heed to what the hands are doing, much that the farmer does 

 in no way interferes with free range of thought, and the closest mental investi- 

 gation. This fact gives him the advantage over the teacher, the lawyer, mer- 

 chant, physician, and nearly all others. What he has read, it may be in the 

 few minutes of his leisure, he can make the subject of his thoughts for hours. 

 A child, to be in good bodily health, and grow in stature and strength, does not 

 need to eat all the time. There must be a season for digestion and assimilation, 

 to enable the food to become a part of the body. This same process is the se- 

 cret of mental growth. To read for hours in succession is no more needful 

 than to eat as long. By thinking one makes other's thoughts his own, and so 

 in an hour may appropriate to himself what required years of investigation in 

 another. 



But let us take a more magnanimous view of things in making out a life-long 

 career for our children. Admit, if you please, that the more facilities we give 

 them for mental improvement, the more likely they will be to desire still greater 

 advantages and so will be sure to leave us. What of that, provided we see them 

 striving to become useful members of society ? It is at once the pride and glory 

 of our civil polity that any one may aspire to the highest stations and emolu- 

 ments, in the learned professions, in mercantile life and in civil affairs. Chief 

 Justice Chase went from a small rocky farm to the supreme bench. Ex. -Gov. 

 Bnggs was a blacksmith. Our esteemed Vice-President Wilson was a shoemak- 

 er. Ex. -Gov. Banks spent some years in a cotton mill. The origin, career aud 

 usefulness of the leading journalist of our country, Greeley, are too well known 

 to render more than the mere mention of his name necessary. This list can ! e 

 indefinitely extended, showing that many of the most useful and honored men 

 of the age have had their early training on the farm and in the work shop. 

 Why may not our children also strive to be useful elsewhere, if Providence 

 seems so to direct ? Why should we begrudge to less favored regions some of 

 the purity of character and lirmness of purpose that the sons of Southern Berk- 

 shire inhale with its pure air, and inherit from its sturdy hills by virtue of birth- 

 right ? 



To make them contented and honored at home, or respected and useful in 

 other spheres, I, in conclusion would offer this prescription : Render home at- 

 tractive. Consider no part of the house too good to be used. Expend a few 

 dollars for good pictures. Take the local newspaper, as a matter of course. 

 Take some religious paper of the denomination to which you belong. Take one 

 of the leading monthly magazines. Avoid book-agents as an unmitigated nui- 

 sance, but purchase from time to time, and frequently, if possible, some good 

 work in history, biography, tiavels, or staudard fiction. In a word, furnish 

 your children with facilities for becoming intelligent, useful members of society. 

 Such an investment will pay better in the end than Northern Pacific railroad 

 bonds ! 



