PREREQUESITES TO SUCCESS. 
127 
PREREQUISITES TO SUCCESS. 
From an Address before the La Fayette Agricultural Society, 
BY HENRY S, MAGOON, A. M. 
It is a^ truth, and thank God for this truth, that everything 
beautiful or valuable in this world, can be acquired only by 
labor. This is true alike of individuals, and of the acquisi¬ 
tion of those possessions and glories that illumine the history 
of nations. Why, this great Republic, beneath whose vener¬ 
able shadow our people, from ocean to ocean, are resting both 
secure and happy, was established only by years of toil, by 
powers of skill, by energies of action, that shook the Continent 
to its center ! Yes, our Revolutionary Fathers nobly devoting 
themselves to their country’s service, not only were forced to 
march through storm and winter’s cold, often with the blood 
oozing from their frozen feet, but thousands on mighty battle 
fields laid down their life, when not a friend was nigh to speak 
a kindly word or to wipe the bloody tear as the soul was rush¬ 
ing to eternity ! 
And so with things of daily use ; labor is the only coin 
with which they can be purchased. From the pearls that daz¬ 
zle in the ball-room, to the rough hoe with which you break 
clods ; from the ox-wagon lumbering its load into market, to 
yon locomotive rushing thunder-footed through the plain, in¬ 
dustry stamps everything as her's. ITow necessary then, that 
the Farmer should be diligent. It is vital. Therefore, Far¬ 
mers ! would you have farms smiling in the finest order ; would 
you have a home not less beautiful than happy, together with a 
prosperous manhood, and an old, age crowned full of blessings ; 
seek not to gain them save by earnest w'ork, by that patient 
