THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



227 



her own teelh and tongue have been stained 

 with blood. Thus qualified, she might with a 

 greater degree of impartiality approach the in- 

 quiry whether the doctrine of Pope may not af- 

 ter all be correct, that 



"Discord is harmony not understood. 

 And partial evil universal good." 



And perhaps after due consideration at length 

 may be prepared to assent to the ultimate con- 

 clusion of the poet just quoted, that, with refer- 

 ence to the whole universe and the general laws 

 by which it is governed, " whatever is, is right." 

 There are certainly many things, which on a 

 superficial view appear to be great evils, but 

 which on proper examination, are found to be 

 no evils at all. In this predicament stands the 

 necessity of exertion. Intellectual and muscu- 

 lar exertion are the parents not only of every 

 physical comfort, but of all human excellence. 

 To these we are indebted for the sound and 

 healthy state, as well as for the progressive im- 

 provement of all our faculties and organs. And 

 the necessary results of habitual and permanent 

 inaction would be morbid imbecility, degenera- 

 tion, and the descent of the human race on the 

 general scale of animal existence. And this 

 downward course of civilized man would not be 

 towards the condition of the savage, who is con- 

 stantly stimulated to vigorous exertion by the 

 evils of hunger and cold and by the perils of 

 hostile attacks, but tow r ard the state of the harm- 

 less oyster adhering to its native rock, and the 

 whole business of whose life consist in the periodi- 

 cal opening of its shell about one-tenth of an 

 inch for the spontaneous entrance of nourishment. 



It may tend still further to reconcile us to our 

 unalterable destiny, of incessant action against 

 universal reaction, to consider that in obedience 

 to this law our welfare and happiness chiefly 

 consist. The gratification of the senses, it is 

 true, form an item, but it is comparatively a 

 small item in the general aggregate of human 

 enjoyment; and in this respect every man pos- 

 sessed of the necessaries of life, nay, every brute 

 animal in a similar situation, stands nearly on the 

 same level. Indulgence in sensual pleasure can, 

 from the laws of the animal economy, occupy 

 but little of our time, and it constitutes but a 

 small part of the busines of life. Our happiness 

 or misery depends chiefly on the manner in 

 which we pass those comparatively long inter 

 vals of time which lie between the points of 

 sensual gratification ; and that these intervals, 

 comprising almost the whole of life, are most 

 agreeably and happily employed in active, in- 

 teresting occupation of body and mind is a pro- 

 position, the truth of which is attested by uni- 

 versal experience. 



The acting, thinking man is, therefore, the 

 only happy man ; and on the contrary, the ab- 

 sence of all motive and object of action consti- 



tute the wretched condition, called in French 

 ennui and in Latin tedium vita, and from the op- 

 pressive burden of which many, although sur- 

 rounded by all the blessings and comforts of life, 

 have sought refuge in suicide. 



Although there is a pleasurable feeling re- 

 sulting from the sound and healthy action of all 

 the bodily organs, and which is probably com- 

 mon to every grade and species of animal life, 

 yet this of itself is far from constituting the 

 highest attainable degree of human happiness. 

 In addition to this corporeal activity the mind 

 also, as has been already intimated, must be oc- 

 cupied and interested, the intellectual faculties 

 exerted, and the social and moral affections ha- 

 bitually exercised. 



It is difficult to imagine a situation on this 

 earth more favorable to a combination of all 

 these elements of happiness, than that of the 

 agriculturist. Oh ! fortunatos nimium, exclaims 

 the poet of Mantua, sua si bona norint agricolas. 



Nor can the cultivator of the soil reflect with- 

 out proud complacency, on the dignity and im- 

 portance of his occupation — not only as being 

 connected with all human science, but also as 

 constituting the broad basis of every human 

 interest. 



But I suspect the reader is ready to say, if 

 agriculture be this all-important concern it cer- 

 tainly claims a less interrupted attention than it 

 has received since its assumption as the princi- 

 pal topic of this communication. 



I acknowledge that I have committed myself 

 rather more unreservedly than I expected or in- 

 tended to their erratic guidance of ideal associa- 

 tion ; but in so doing, I have only been indul- 

 ging myself in the privilege with which Elihu 

 the son of Barachel the Buzite* has invested, 

 " length of days and multitude of years," and 

 of which privilege I gave premonition at the 

 beginning, that I was duly sensible. I now, 

 however, claim the merit of returning to my 

 subject, and am ready to resume the inquiry, 

 how we may best counteract the injurious ef- 

 fects of the severe summer droughts to which 

 our climate is liable? But really, Mr. Editor, 

 and you, gentlemen of the Club, I am ashamed 

 of the graceless length to which this article has 

 been already extended, and must, therefore, com- 

 mit what I have to suggest on this subject to a 

 subsequent communication. 



William F. Rice. 



Dr. Beekman stated in his Address before 

 the late New York State Agricultural Fair in 

 Rochester, that ten millions of cattle, and forty- 



* If any reader should exclaim, who the devil is 

 he, I answer, search the Scriptures, where you may 

 not only find out something about Elihu the son of 

 Barachel the Buzite, but perhaps, also, learn the in- 

 decency of taking the name of a certain personage 

 in vain. 



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