130 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
In the first place, knowledge is necessary to perceive the nature and 
value of literary and civil institutions. The half-educated may know 
enough to desire these, but not enough to respect and sustain them. 
The illiterate cannot see the nature and object of literary institutions, 
which are to liberate the mind, and raise the intellectual and moral con¬ 
dition of a nation—to increase the necessaries, and furnish the elegan¬ 
cies of life; and to let man feel and know the greatness of his nature. 
This can be known by those only who have felt the power, and tast¬ 
ed the pleasures of knowledge; and such institutions can be esta¬ 
blished and sustained by those only who can estimate their exalting 
influence. The nature and value of civil institutions, the educated 
will much better understand and honor. A high degree of know¬ 
ledge is requisite to see the nature and necessity of civil government 
Man’s weakness makes society desirable, and his wickedness makes 
government necessary. This government he supports to protect his 
life, his property, and his natural rights. The great object of go¬ 
vernment is to preserve order and distribute justice. The intelli¬ 
gent can estimate the value of such a public check and judge ; for 
they can see the consequences of the selfishness and maliciousness 
of men. 
Men, living in a civil government, have natural and civil rights; 
and knowledge becomes necessary that they may know when just ice 
is administered. And, in the first place, men should know what 
their rights are; how many of them they have surrendered up to 
the general government, that they may enjoy its protection and the 
advantages of society ; and what rights they have retained, and of 
which nothing should deprive them. 
Having learned their rights, they should know whether or not they 
were respected by their rulers. When there is fraud and injustice 
on the part of those who govern, the governed should be intelligent 
enough to know it, and able to defend themselves. The natural 
love of power, and the extreme selfishness of man, should excite 
him for preparation to judge of those who are in office, and have 
the opportunity of gratifying these oppressive principles. Respect 
and obedience are due to those in office, for they are the guardians 
and ministers of that government which has been established for the 
promotion of human happiness. Rut corrupt rulers may forfeit their 
claims by personal wickedness and public injustice; and if this 
should take place, the public should be able to perceive it, and stop 
the abuses before their liberties are in danger. 
On the other hand, the half-educated know not when their go¬ 
vernment is well administered. They are discontented and clamo¬ 
rous when they have their rights, and all the blessings of a well-or¬ 
dered administration. They know not the value of the privileges 
they enjoy, and are always ready for a change in their rulers. They 
see not the excellencies of their civil institutions, and do not feel re¬ 
spect enough for them to preserve them. In a government where 
the people not only make the laws, but select those who are to ad¬ 
minister them, there is the most imperious necessity for high intel¬ 
ligence and moral worth in every individual. The people should 
well understand their government, and be qualified to know that it 
is ably and justly administered ; or whether it is not made the in¬ 
strument of gratifying the ambition of the few, and of destroying the 
rights and of oppressing the many. The people should be educated 
to know whether or not they are restrained by any law which does 
not conduce to the greatest private and general good. The people 
may see evils, but they ought to be able to take that general view 
of the whole which would show them advantages (if there were 
such) which more than overbalance these evils. 
In this government, justice is very often administered by a jury: 
and as this jury is taken from among the people, all should prepare 
themselves for being called upon to apply the law, and judge of the 
rights of their fellow men. In the inferior courts of justice, the peo. 
pie are the judicial as well as the legislative part of the government. 
These important offices demand intelligence in every citizen. When 
those who are to be chosen for jurors are known to be ignorant or 
corrupt, dishonest individuals will claim the rights of others, and 
hope, through the known imperfection of the jury, to obtain those un¬ 
just demands which they are certain that right and the law would deny 
them. Thus, the ignorance of man may be the loss of their rights, 
when they themselves are to be judges. It is desirable, too,'that 
there should be general intelligence to ensure uniformity in jury de¬ 
cisions ; for nothing excites a spirit of litigation more than uncer¬ 
tainty. When men differ, they should see the certainty of the de¬ 
cisions of the law. Again, the laws were made to keep men honest. 
If they are disposed not to be so, the law may compel them. It 
I hence becomes necessary to know when we should ask assistance 
from the laws, or, in other words, when litigation is necessary and 
justifiable. To judge correctly in this, we must know what our 
rights are, and how far the law may assist us in securing them ; 
and this presupposes general information, obtained only by much 
study and reading; but which all may get if they will avail them¬ 
selves of ail the means of knowledge which may be obtained.— Tay¬ 
lor’s District School. 
THE CULTIVATOR-DEC. 1885. 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION. 
It will be seen, by the notice inserted in to-day’s Cultivator, 
that an Agricultural Convention is proposed to be held in Albany, 
on the second Monday in Feb. next. The notice has appended 
to it the names of many highly respectable citizens, to whom the 
proposition was submitted—enough to give to it all the weight 
and consequence which is desirable in a preliminary measure. 
This is the era of conventions; and when their object is praise¬ 
worthy, they are seldom otherwise than beneficial. They tend to 
bring about a concert of action, and to concentrate the energies 
of many for the accomplishment of a common good. And if the 
jagricultural community can in this way do any thing to advance 
' their interests, we may rest assured that the state will be benefit- 
i ted, so intimately is the prosperity of the first identified with that 
of the latter. The discreet farmer must graduate the extent of 
his purchases from the merchant, manufacturer, &c. by the nett 
profits of his farm. If we can double these profits, as we feel as¬ 
sured may be done, the other classes of society will be corres¬ 
pondingly benelitted. 
There are many topics which present themselves as worthy the 
| consideration of an agricultural convention, and in which the 
whole community have a deep interest. We will endeavor to point 
! out some of the more prominent ones. 
I 1. The establishment of a School of Agriculture. “It remains 
to us,” says Chaptal, “ to improve agriculture by the application 
of physical science. All the phenomena which it presents, are 
the consequences necessarily resulting from those eternal laws by 
which matter is governed ; and all the operations which the agri¬ 
culturist performs, serve only to develop or modify these causes. 
It is, then, to the acquisition of a knowledge of these laws, in 
order to calculate their effects, and modify their action, that we 
ought to direct our researches.” These laws relate not only to 
the organic and ponderable matters with which we have to do, as 
(animals and vegetables, earths and manures, but to light, heat and 
moisture, which exercise a controlling influence over animal and 
vegetable life. “ Discoveries made in the cultivation of the earth,” 
it is well remarked by Davy, “are not merely for the time and 
country in which they are developed, but they may be considered 
as extending to future ages, and as ultimately tending to benefit the 
whole human race ; as affording subsistence for generations yet to 
come; as multiplying life, and not only multiplying life, but likewise 
; providing for its enjoyment.” And if the sciences, as is often assert¬ 
ed, are worthy of our ardent pursuit, merely on account of the intel¬ 
lectual pleasures they afford —“ by enlarging our views of nature, 
and enabling us to think more correctly with respect to the beings 
and objects around us,”—how much more worthy are they of our re¬ 
gard, when employed to multiply the products and profits of human 
labor—to increase the comforts and happiness of the human family. 
Rut it is not desired to make mere scientific farmers, but intimately 
to blend the practice, and the best practice, in all the departments 
of rural labor, with the theory, and to test and correct the one by 
the other. In the plan of a school which has been partially pro¬ 
mulgated, it is set down as an indispensable rule, that during the 
seven farming months, both teachers and students shall devote at 
least one half of the time to the practical labors of the field, the 
garden or the mechanic’s shop. The plan has been objected to 
on the ground, that few, comparatively, can become its inmates. 
The same objection exists to all our higher literary schools : not 
one individual in five thousand receives instruction in our colleges ; 
and yet it would subject one to ridicule to contend, that these col¬ 
leges do not exercise a highly salutary influence, indirectly, upon 
the best interests of the community. So of our canals and public 
improvements ; they do not directly benefit property where ample 
