EXHIBITION — annual ADDRESSES. 
73 
society called political economy? I have already called your atten¬ 
tion to the analogies between the processes of nature or the works of 
God and the organization of human society, and I now claim that 
those systems of social sciences and practical economy which are 
framed upon the recognition of these relations and dependencies in 
material organisms, will be the most perfect and best adapted to 
promote the object in view, the greatest general good. I will go 
further and say that they are so framed, as will be clearly apparent 
when fully considered and understood. When the earth is fitted 
to receive him, man, civilized man, makes his advent, is placed in 
the most fruitful and productive region, and commanded to “till the 
soil and dress it,” and thus was inaugurated the primeval and the 
most natural human employment, agriculture. He is to make avail¬ 
able to his use the most generous agencies of nature, ready to aid 
him in the production of his subsistence and comfort. He cannot 
use with profit his naked hands. He must have tools and imple¬ 
ments of husbandry. Seed time is at hand and the harvest will not 
wail, and he has no time to procure the materials, and has neither 
the time or skill to construct them. To his opening and quickened 
mind, the thought gains lodgment that some one ought to leave ex¬ 
clusive tillage and devote his time, and skill, and labor to the man- 
facture of these implements as a separate and distinct employment, 
and thus is begun the business of the mechanic. 
This primeval farmer must have also clothing for himself and 
family, vessels and vehicles for the keeping and the carrying of his 
food, and implements for its preparation for the stomach. He and 
his family must have shelter and conveniences for rest and recrea¬ 
tion in his intervals of labor. All these new constructions require 
peculiar skill and labor, which he cannot and has no time to bestow. 
Here we have various and distinct occupations, for the tailor, the 
house builder, the moulder, and the worker in metals, or the black¬ 
smith. He employs all these classes of workmen and pays them by 
his own farming products, which they have no time to produce. 
He then supports them in one sense, and they support him by giv¬ 
ing him the better means of production, in exclusive time, attention 
and implements, and in his comfort and convenience. There is no 
antagonism here so far, most certainly, and the benefits are mutual 
and reciprocal. 
All these men, by virtue of their special and peculiar and exclu- 
