120 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



OCTOBER n, 1888. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



THE VANDOIS HARVEST HYMN. 



Falher of mercies ! Go! of Peace I 

 Being whose Kounlies never cease! 

 While to the Heavens, in graleful loncs, 

 Ascend oi.r mingled orisons, 

 Listen lo these, the notes of praise, 

 Which wc, a liappy people, raise! 



Our hamlet, slieltcrcd liy Thj' care, 

 Aliodcs of peace and plenty are; 

 Our tillage hy Thy blessing yields 

 An hundred fold— the ripened fields 

 Of flowing grain — the hurthened vine — 

 Are tokens of Thy Love Divine. 



The cradled head of infancy 

 Owclh its tranquil rest to Thee — 

 Youth's douliting step, man's firmer tread. 

 In years mature, liy Thee are led — 

 Secure may trembling age, Oh Lord ! 

 Lea'n on its staff, Thy Holy Word. 



"reach us these blessings lo improve, 

 Teach us to serve thee, teach to love — 

 Exalt our hearts, that we may see 

 The Giver of all Good, in Thee ; 

 And he Thy Word our daily food, 

 Thy service, God, our greatest good. 



Whether in youth, like early fruit, 

 Or in the sere and solemn suit 

 Of our autumnal age, like wheat 

 Ripened and for the reaper fit. 

 Thou cut us off, O God, may we 

 Gathered into Thy garner be ! 



rrnm the Itichinond County Mirror. 



SUMMER'S GONE. 

 Jack Frost has been to work again among t"he 

 forest leaves. Already his bold crimson and rus- 

 set hues are peeping from among the strange deep 

 green of summer. And — like the first gray hairs 

 vi-hich stray intrudingly upon our ear-locks — the 

 first shrunken leaves rustle past us with a sad fore- 

 boding story. They tell the melancholy tale of 

 Nature's faded loveliness. The time is near at 

 hand when we must stoically bow to the behest of 

 Nature, and bid a short adieu to the green and 

 sunny seasons of the year. To many this farewell 

 will be the last — for the last time some of us now 

 look out upon the green drapery of this beautiful 

 earth, upon the structure of which the immaeulate 

 Creator has displayed so much of His power, his 

 goodness, and ine.\haiistible benevolence. For the 

 last time we watch the silver mountain-streams 

 leaping from their unknown fastnesses, laving the 

 mossy banks and swathing the long grass which 

 dapples in their mimic eddies. The same stern 

 hand whose strange thraH shall lock up their en- 

 ergies in its icy manacles, may also lay upon us 

 its cold and stilly ruin ! To many there may be 

 sorrow in this contemplation. Bttt to him whose 

 ethereal mind springs naturally from mundane glo- 

 ries, and sees in heaven's pure arc a pleasing hope 

 of those pure hopes and joys immortal wliich are 

 to grace his future history, these beautiful changes 

 mark the welcome approach of that day " when this 

 mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible 

 shall put on incorruption." Oh, what a bright pie- 

 rian fount does bland Philosophy open to those 

 whose knowledge-yearning souls are ever ready to 

 drink in its rich nectar. And Poesy too — the fairy 



offspring of the enchanted nymph — as she moves 

 majestically over the earth, unseen by all but her 

 worshippers, how can she swathe us with her heav- 

 enly spirit, and immerse us in her care-dispelling 

 Ecthe ! Guided by her, we look with new eyes 

 upon the varied panorama of Creation, and .see in 

 every lineament of Nature the peerless mechanism 

 of a Power Supreme. With her twin sister, Phi- 

 losophy, she floats on atrial pinions, and touches 

 with a magic wand the golden gates of pure and 

 undefiled religion. The narrow path, which but a 

 few may find, is lighted by her presence with a 

 noon-day glory, while the thousands who are de- 

 barred participation, are dazzled by the glowing 

 splendor until tlieir eyes are even darkened by the 

 unbroken light. 



In the providential changing of the seasons, we 

 have the most convincing proofs of the wisdom of 

 that Great Original, from whose plastic hands 

 worlds without number mount into their spheres, as 

 sparks spring upward from a rustic fire. While 

 myriads of stars shine in the azure depths, with 

 brighter lustre than the golden tiles which whilom 

 glistened on the walls of Solomon's vain-glorious 

 temple. But there is an indefinable line which 

 prescribes the limits of philosophy, and beyond 

 which her step-by-step advances cannot delve. 

 Here it is where man's own knowledge defines its 

 ignorance, and where his wondrous lore makes the 

 dicsovery of his imbecility and weakness. At this 

 point his giant powers mount just high enough to 

 peep from the confine-walls of their enclosure be- 

 yond which all is inscrutable and dark. Man can- 

 not know how mere a worm he is, until Philosophy 

 holds up to him the mirror of creation, and even 

 then, the infinity of his Littleness shrinks to a point 

 which the immortal soul within him cannot descend 

 to contemplate. Thus it is, the divinity within 

 him tells plainly of that high source which he may 

 boast. The mighty mover of this great machine, 



" Whose body Nature is — and God the soul !" 

 Here it is where Philosophy loses herself in her 

 own depths, and reclines her exhausted form upon 

 the altars of the "Great 



First-Last ! pavilioned high, who sils 



In darkness — from excessive splendor born — 

 By gods unseen, unless through lustre lost!'"* 



THE WEALTH OF A COUNTRY 



DEPENDS UPON THE FARMERS AND MKCHANICS. 



What is wealth ? These things which are con- 

 venient and necessary to use, and which administer 

 to our wants and our comforts. Money alone, can- 

 not therefore be considered as wealth, because if 

 the articles or things above mentioned are not to be 

 liad, or are not in e.\istence, a man would be poor 

 indeed, though he were loaded with gold and .sil- 

 ver. If he were hungry and there was no bread to 

 be bought, if he were shivering with cold and there 

 were no garments made for sale, his gold would be 

 but of little service. It is true, mankind, by a 

 common consent, have agreed that gold and silver 

 should be the signs or evidence of property, — or in 

 other words, tlie measure of property ; and he wiio 

 has a certain amount of it, has evidence of so much 

 wealtli. He can exchange it for the very things or 

 articles which do in fact constitute wealth. 



Thus a man who has a hundred dollars in his 

 pocket, has the ticket, as it were, to entitle him to 

 enter into the possession of an hundred bushels of 



com, or a hundred yards of cloth, or a hundred 

 acres of wild land, or a yoke of oxen, or a horse 

 and wagon, as the case may be. But if these 

 things do not exist, and he needs them, his ticket is 

 of no more use, than if he had a ticket to go into a 

 theatre, and it should ha\e been burned down before 

 he used it. The elements therefore of wealth con- 

 .sist in natural productions, brought together, chang- 

 ed and modified by the skill and labor of man ; of 

 the farmer and mechanic. Commerce, though 

 necessary and honorable, is nothing more than the 

 tnoving or changing of these productions from 

 place to place. It has always appeared singular to 

 us, that merchants should consider themselves, as 

 too many, far too many of tliem do, above the farm- 

 ers or mechanics, merely on account of their pro- 

 fession, when they are indeed only the teamsters to 

 tlie others. They are the agents to transport their 

 productions hither and thither, as calls may exist 

 for them. But to return to the subject. If we are 

 right in the position which we have taken, that 

 wealth consists in natural productions changed and 

 wrought upon by the labor of man, it follows that 

 the country which possesses the most of the ele- 

 ments or materials to work upon, such as good soil, 

 abundance of water power, forests of timber, quar- 

 ries of diflferent kinds of stones, mines, and beds of 

 different kinds of minerals, &c., must have the most 

 natural wealth. It then only requires the hand of 

 industry and skill to put these materials into shape, 

 and to put them together to form real substantial 

 wealth. This is the duty of the fiirmer and me- 

 chanic. They are tlie second creators of wealth. 

 They take the raw material as it came from the 

 hands of the Almighty, and change it by tlieir labor 

 into (he thousands and tens of thousands of different 

 forms, which render it useful to man, which make 

 it subservient to the wants and comforts of human 

 life. The more industrious and skilful this class 

 is, the more wealth will be arxumulated in the 

 country. Do farmers and mechanics consider these 

 things rightly ? Are they not too apt to think 

 themselves as mere plodders and servants, rather 

 than as second to the Great First Cause in the 

 production and increase of wealth.' And, indeed, 

 is tliere not a false standard of respectability, too 

 much in use in society, and are not the productive 

 classes apt to measure themselves by it.' This 

 standard appears to be idleness and a fine coat ; and 

 consequently, the more idle a man can be, and the 

 finer the dress, the more of a gentleman. Not so. 

 Respectability should consist in an improved mind, 

 and skilful and industrious hands. Moral qualifi- 

 cations being equal, he should have the most honor, 

 who by the combination of the efforts of his mind 

 and physical powers, has contributed more largely 

 to tlie increase of those things which constitute 

 wealth. 



Such an one has done more for the amelioration 

 of society, tlian a thousand unproductive dandies, 

 who toil in the shade and wash in cologne. And 

 society should bestow upon such a corresponding 

 meed of honor. 



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TUTTLE, DENNETT AND CHISHOLM, PRINTERS, 



n SCHOOL STREKT... .BOSTON. 



