446 [Assembly 



nature's laws will capacitate it for another step in progression j 

 for the brain, like the arm of the blacksmith, or the leg of the 

 dancing master, must increase in energy at least, if not in size, 

 by healthful use, and this use is a free observance of God's laws 

 as displayed in the progression of nature. 



All have observed that the inhabitants of the country have 

 this power of observation to a greater extent than those whose 

 tastes lead them to become inhabitants of large cities, and to en- 

 gage in mercantile pursuits. Indeed, this fact has given rise to 

 many anecdotes, such as the boy who, when asked which was the 

 direction of up stream, ascertained the fact, and answered the 

 question by throwing a stone at a frog, then remarking a frog 

 always jumps up stream when disturbed. 



The Yankee captain who visited Sir Joseph Banks, is another 

 example of this power of observation. Sir Joseph said, " You 

 appear, sir, to be an observant man; do you know if the croco- 

 dile really cries to entice travellers, as has been stated ?" " No," 

 says the captain; "he cannot cry, he has no tongue." "No 

 tongue !" said Sir Joseph. " No, sir; he has no more tongue than 

 an elephant." " Has an elephant no tongue ?" " No, he has no 

 use for a tongue; he has a trunk." " Pray, sir," said Sir Joseph, 

 " how did you arrive at these facts 1" " Well," said he, " I saw 

 a stuffed crododile in a doctor's shop, and I saw an elephant in a 

 menagerie, still thousands of others might have seen the same 

 crocodile and elephant without ascertaining the same facts." 

 These anecdotes may not seem pertinent to our argument, but 

 they are so. Let any farmer devote the evenings of a single 

 winter to the reading of Geology, Entomology, Chemistry, Na- 

 tural Philosophy, and Natural History, and apply his acquired 

 knowledge as an amusement, while pursuing his vocation during 

 the following summer, and he will find himself able to observe 

 and comprehend thousands of incidents connected with natural 

 law, which would before have passed by him unobserved. He 

 will then see and understand that the soil is but a debris of the 

 rocks, that in its original formation this occurred from the com- 

 bined influence of sun and air, and changes of temperature by 

 freezing and thawing, in rendering these rocks a soil. . He will 



