476 [Assembly 



We cheerfully concede, that the security, stability, and protection 

 rendered by the civil powers to agriculture, have been no small in- 

 gredient, but not the main element of its reduplication. 



It is science which has lent a helping hand, and furnished those 

 vrho were in search of truth with a knowledge of matter, and the 

 laws by which it is governed, and the successful application of its 

 principles tested by frequent and sharpsighted experiments. 



And where is the man that professes to tread the lofty eminences 

 of science, and plumes himself on his liberality and reason} who will 

 have the boldness to deny that agriculture, as an art, does not open 

 the very fountains of wealth, clothe the sands and naked rocks with 

 verdure — convert the stagnant and malarious morass into sweet and 

 waving meadows — barren and gloomy plains into fields teeming with 

 golden grain, and wild domains of rank and unsightly vegetation, 

 exhaling contagion and death, into the cheerful abodes of health and 

 independence. 



Can this primeval avocation have a subordinate consideration, 

 which shows how animal and vegetable productions may be doubled 

 without even exhausting the soil, the population of a country run up 

 rapidly in numbA-s, and at the same time be ameliorated with the 

 necessities and comforts of life; how the unseemly and offensive 

 refuse of organic nature may, by the industry of man and physical 

 agency, enter into the composition of the most dainty food; and 

 even how the shapeless iron blocks may color the warm blood cour- 

 sing the veins of the fleet horse, or paint the lowly violet? 



Then in the whole rang» of intellectual pursuits, what study can 

 be of greater importance than this, if tested by its influence on the 

 happiness and prosperity of nations? 



No wonder that men of elevated and benevolent minds are anima- 

 ted with a pure desire to promote the welfare of their species, have 

 associated their wealth and lent their talents and influence, circulated 

 valuable information, and roused public attention to this much neg- 

 lected department of science. And he must be covered with the rust 

 of prejudice, and breathe the chilling air of torpor, that would fain 

 wish to withhold from the industrial classes a free access to those 

 institutions designed to unfold elementary and profound truths appro- 

 priate for every station and circumstance. For does not history 

 teach that an enlightened rural population, fostered, but not crippled. 



