38 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



of INSECURITY of TENURE to its already arduous and 

 time-and-patience-needing problems ! If it be Mind 

 that acts upon Matter, what is it that acts upon 

 Mind ? Surely MOTIVE and INTEREST, and that AS- 

 SURANCE OF RESULTS, which the most ordinary pru- 

 dence demands, and the most buoyant energy feeds 

 upon or dies. 



Well may a bold experiment startle minds which 

 have been drilled into the habit, because into the 

 necessity, of contracting every prospect, every outlay, 

 every mental conception, within the compass of an 

 'Agreement for a yearP If there is an attribute 

 which more than others marks the distinction of the 

 human mind, from that of the lower animal creation, 

 it is that it looks forward : if there is an art that 

 more than others demands the powerful and pro- 

 longed exercise of this faculty, it is agriculture : if 

 there is a thing which adds force and method and 

 precision to this faculty, it is Education. Does the 

 pen need to draw the conclusion ? Can the reader of 

 ' Sermons in Stones ' decipher no Leases in Clods, no 

 schools of instruction in " Calx, Silex, and Alumen?" 



Winter however, like Adversity, has a surprisingly 



improving influence upon things made of Clay. 



As each little thaw, towards spring-time, came and 

 went, the gradual process of granulation had broken 



