THEORY AND PBACTICE. 77 



ever be low, as only Ignorance imagines. The old 

 Chronicler, amidst his own early blunders and extra- 

 vagance, has yet had no occasion to correct the first 

 impression with which he looked upon a child turned 

 into a scarecrow for the new-sown field, a boy ' driv- 

 ing plough' the livelong day, and a man (A MIND !) 

 threshing in a barn! without one hour for the in- 

 struction and development of that higher part which 

 separates his mind from the instinct of the Brute, 

 his body from Machinery ! 



Talk of * Agricultural Improvements,' of the 

 difficulty of getting the labourers to take to a new 

 implement, or adopt an improved method ! What 

 enables you to see its advantage and adopt it ? Your 

 Mind. What cultivates your farm better than your 

 neighbour's ? Your Mind. If that alone be left 

 uncultivated around you, at every point, at every 

 turn, in every field, in every furrow, in every hedge, 

 in every ditch, in your House, in your Dairy, in 

 your Stable, in your Barn, everywhere and at every 

 time, by Day and Night, Winter, Spring, Summer, 

 and Autumn the neglect that has been allowed to 

 sow itself, the moral weed-crop, will meet your eye 

 to baffle and torment you with the feeling so truth- 

 fully expressed, when you say that you ' have not a 

 single mind you can depend upon ! ' 



