RBv. MR. Emerson's address. 5 



great schemes of improvement and reform are projected and executed 

 by health. There is a difference between not being sick and being 

 abundant in health. A man to perform much must not be merely free 

 from disease, but he must have immense vitality. He must be able 

 to^sleep well, and eat well, and assimilate well. He must be pos- 

 sessed of plus animal life and spirits. Then working, planning and 

 creating, are means of the highest pleasure. Many good things are 

 written about the rules of Hygiene ; gymnastic schools are established 

 in cultivated society everywhere ; but when everything has been said 

 and done that art and science can do, the results are put in the shade 

 by wl at farming dnes in promoting health and vital energy in the 

 farmer. The employment of the farmer gives him in his varied labors 

 just the exercise that develop harmoniously the muscular system. The 

 vital energies are augmented by constant exercise in the open air. He 

 becomes used to all kinds of weather and all degrees of cold and heat, 

 until the vital powers of the system can not only defy rain, snow, hail 

 and wind, but use them in enhancing their own powers. The cold 

 that drives the city boy shivering into the house, causes the farmer's 

 boy to leap and laugh with physical joy. To the latter the coldest 

 January morning is the most exhilirating stimulant. 



Second. Farming promotes a manly feeling of freedom and inde 

 pendence. He that has conquered severe climates* and the hostile 

 elements, is not to crouch before crowned heads or earthly sceptres. 

 Nature is free, and the farmer who has dealt with her until she has 

 imparted to him not only the fruits of her field, but the free atmos- 

 phere of her mountains, and the spirit of her laws which spurn at 

 human control, will never bow beneath the yoke of tyranny. Nature 

 is self-reliant and so is the farmer. He would rather die than beg. 

 This feeling grows out of no false pride, but from • the lesson Nature 

 has taught him, to earn what he would possess. That in the farmer's 

 hands which he has not earned, is to him a coal of fire. Nature 

 allows no shams, and the farmer can allow nothing which looks like 

 mere ostentation and display. To him, use and beauty are always 

 combined. He loves to have things exact. He wants pay for just what 

 he parts with, and nothing more. It is not the farmer's half-bushel 

 which has a false bottom in it. Exact weights and measures are his 

 especial delight. The farmer sometimes attempts to cheat the specu- 

 lator, I am aware; but he learned the lesson, not from his employment, 

 but from having often traded with the speculator. I think it was Na- 

 poleon who said, "Do not go to war too often with the same nation, or 

 you will teach them your art, of which they will take advantage, to 

 your hurt." I have sometimes thought this caution might apply with 

 equal force to speculators concerning their deal with farmers. Plain 

 dealing, plain words, and plain dress characterize the farmer ; for Na- 

 ture has taught him to be like herself — simple. 



Third. The pursuit of agriculture tends to develop the^ intellectu- 

 al faculties. There is a notion current in the popular mind that a 

 man who cannot succeed in any other pursuit should be a farmer ; but 

 this is a sad mistake. There is no pursuit that re([uire8 a fuller share 



