m. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANURING OROHAEPS. 



Jan^arj' 1848. 



THE culture of tlae soH may be viewed in two very different as- 

 peots. In one, it is a mean and ignorant employment. It is a 

 moral servitude, wiieh man is condelnned to pay to fields perpetur 

 ally doomed to bear thorns and thistles. It is an unmeaning roatiae 

 of plantii^ and sowing, to earn bread enough to satisfy the hunger 

 and cdver the nakedness of the race. And it is performed ill this 

 light, by the servants of the soil, in a routine as simple, and wi^h a 

 spirit scarcely more intelligent than that of the beasts which, draw 

 tbe plough that tears open the bdsotn of a hard and ungenial 

 earth ! 



What is the other aspect in which a^culture may be viewed? 

 Very different indeed. It is an employpient at once the most natural, 

 noble, and independent that can engage the energies of man. It 

 brings the whole earth into subjection. It transforms unproductive 

 tracts into fruitful fields and gardens. It raises man put of the un- 

 certain and wild life of the fisher and hunter, into that where all the 

 best institutions of society have their birth. It is the niother of all 

 the arts, all the commerce, and all the industrial emplo3mient9. that 

 maintain the civilization of the world. It is full of the most pro- 

 found physical wonders, and involves an insight into the whole his- 

 tory of the planet, and the hidden laws that govern that moat com- 

 mon and palpable, and yet most wonderful and incomprehensible 

 substance — nfiatter ! There has never yet lived one who has been' 

 philosopher enough to penetrate farther than the outer vestibules of 



