444 [Assembly 



proveraent, and by no class of citizens is this subject more ne- 

 glected than by farmers. 



The ffirmer, beyond all others, should have clear powers of 

 observation, so as readily to observe and apply nature's laws. His 

 vocation is the root of all prosperity, and until the farmers of a 

 nation are progressed to the highest power of observation, the 

 country cannot rise to the highest rank. 



Let us examine this subject as applied to an individual case, 

 and the means may possibly be ascertained of arriving at the 

 desideratum . 



The usual argument in favor of a thorough and conventional 

 education, although admitted, is not practicable. Farmers can- 

 not be mere scholars ; the vigor consequent upon their mode of 

 life, is not of a kind to render them capable of becoming mathe- 

 maticians, nor of availing of that part of the usual progress 

 having a mathematical basis ; but still we argue that no class of 

 men are so capable, when properly directed, of availing of pro- 

 cesses by which the more useful class of facts may be attained. 



Lord Brougham has justly remarked: "That mathematical 

 truths may be arrived at by thought alone ; " and he says — ^' any 

 man may,'''' he does not say will, " by the process of thought alone, 

 arrive at the solution of any problem in mathematics, by the same 

 process of thought as that by whicli he knows that 2 and 2 makes 

 4." " But," says the learned gentleman, " no man can know by 

 thought alone, that a stone let fall from his hand would descend 

 to the ground." He knows this fact from observation, and not 

 from thought ; for if he had not seen the law of gravitation exer- 

 cised in some way before, he could not by any thought of his 

 own, tell if the stone would fall, rise, or float at the level of his 

 hand. He knows this fact by example, and not by thought. The 

 means of such knowledge is not inherent in man. Gravity is a 

 law of God, and as such is only to be learned by observing its de- 

 velopment in nature. We have cited this example only as a basis, 

 and will now proceed to give a few other incidents, and then to 

 show the application to our present argument. 



