The Farmer. 461 
seed, reaping the yellow harvest, watching the flock and gather- 
ing the crop into the garner, have no tendency to arouse the am- 
bition for power over a fellow being, nor for a monopoly of the fruits 
of earth to the starvation of a neighbor. Morally impressed from 
a sense of the bounties of nature, he feels to share with the needy 
and hungry. From other and speculative pursuits spring sordid 
selfishness as from a more legitimate source. I do not pretend 
that moral honesty fills the bosoms of all farmers, far from it; but 
I speak of the legitimate tendency of business pursuits and their 
influence upon the moral and physical man. And by an exami- 
nation of the various classes of men into which the world is 
divided, the greater proportion of benevolent and moral will be 
found among the farmers, and this from the legitimate tendency 
of the occupation of body and mind. And herein we see the wis- 
dom of providence in causing it to be so. If the farmers consti- 
tute our dependence and strength, it is the wiser and safer that 
with them should rest the better standard of morality, if indeed 
there is to be degrees of variance springing from the various pur- 
suits. 
The prejudices of ages gone by have been entailed upon us, and 
have heretofore tended to keep down the reputation of the agricul- 
turist. Even farmers have sought to honor sons — darling and fa- 
vorite sons of their families with " learned professions," and have 
supposed that thereby they, the parents, brothers and sisters would 
be elevated above the common walks of life, by thus connecting 
themselves with the profession of the clergyman, doctor, or law- 
yer. This false pride and mistaken view of things has ruined 
many sons, and pauperized many parents in laboring to carry a 
student through to a profession. Many and many a constitution, 
which with the exercise of the farm would have been sound and 
healthy through a long life, have sunk to ruin and decay in a few 
brief years by habits of inactivity and study; or stubborn idleness 
and pride which the folly of the parents was well calculated to 
induce. 
" How shall I honor my son?" inquires the father and farmer. 
The question is easily answered — educate him to the most honor- 
ble and useful pursuit — agriculture. " He is of a slender con- 
stitution," says the father. Then I say more emphatically he 
needs the fields to range in, that he may have exercise in the pure 
and free air, and enjoy the stimulant of seeing the crops and ver- 
dure spring forth from earth as a reward for his care and industry; 
and it may certainly be relied upon that he can never endure the 
sedentary, inactive life of a slave and fixture of a " chamber and 
library." He may by the career of a student grace his exterior 
by the brush, comb and perfumery of the closet, and arouse his 
mind to a different activity, and acquire a taste for the fashions 
