ADDRESS. 21 



tions, is no new thing under the sun. We learn from the American 

 Annals of 1753 that there was a Society, which celebrated its anni- 

 versary that year on Boston Common, where three hundred of the 

 worthy matrons and maidens of that day, appeared each at her spin- 

 ning wheel, and who were particularly addressed by the Rev. Dr. 

 Cooper, then of Boston, and who was the orator of the day. But we 

 have examples of greater antiquity. Homer, Theocritus and other 

 classic writers, have celebrated in poetry and song the praises of wo- 

 man in the industrial arts. 



Ladies, your presence here to-day, is in imitation of those excel- 

 lent examples, and though the distaff and spindle, and the hand loom 

 have given place to the spinning jenny, and the patent loom ; yet the 

 beautiful and tasteful fabrics which your industry and skill have man- 

 ufactured and placed on Exhibition, are proud testimonals of the pro- 

 gress which your sex have made in the useful and ornamental arts. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : 



I have detained you too long. My only apology is the importance 

 and extent of the subject which the occasion called me to discuss. 



We have considered Agriculture both as an art, and as a science, its 

 importance ; its parental relation to other arts ; its progress as de- 

 pendent on the natural sciences, and the means and motives for its 

 advancement. But we have only entered a field of vast extent, and 

 glanced at a few of its most prominent objects. 



Your extensive exhibition of various rare and valuable productions 

 in Agriculture and the kindred arts, is an excellent testimonial that 

 theory is here happily united with practice. By your appointment I 

 have spoken ; but you have furnished the best illustration of my ar- 

 gument in these productions of your industry and skill. This exhibi- 

 tion is most honorable to its contributors and especially to the officers 

 and members of this Association who conceived the plan, and whose 

 personal energy, liberality and patriotism have been so prominent in 

 its execution. Yet this is but the harbinger of future good, the dawn 

 of a brighter day ; and though all may not live to see it, yet your 

 children and your children's children will rejoice in its meridian light; 

 yea, they will rise up and call you blessed when they shall have gar- 

 nered the harvest of this sowing. Courage, then, in the glorious en- 

 terprise in which you have embarked ! You act not alone ; kindred 

 hearts beat with yours, and kindred hands labor in the same cause. 



