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agriculture is an intellectual, agreeable and dig- 

 nified pursuit, alike favorable to health of body, 

 and strength and purity of mind. Practical farm- 

 ing of course implies a certain amount of manual 

 labor, but this, witliin proper bounds, is a l)less- 

 ing, rather than a curse. Everybody knows that 

 physical exertion of some kind or other is an 

 essential condition of bodily healtli ; and the 

 farmer has the pleasure and advantage of labor- 

 ing in a salubrious atmosphere, under the bhie 

 vault of heaven, surrounded by the beauty and 

 charms of country scenery. Besides, if the 

 farmer has at particular times to Aork hard 

 through many a long day, we must not suppose 

 that cit}^ life is one of peculiar ease. It is, prob- 

 ably, on the whole, a harder life than that of the 

 country. Men, as a rule, do not make fortunes 

 in trade, or r'se to eminence and opulence in the 

 professions, without powerful and continuous ex- 

 ertions of the mind, and sometimes, too, of the 

 body. Multitudes in every large city labor hard 

 day by day, for little more than a bare subsist- 

 ence, enjoying but few intellectual resources, or 

 the amenities of social life. In a country like 

 yours, where class distinctions are not sharply 

 drawn, and honest labor in any department of 

 industry need not be ashamed to raise its head, 



