488 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
too difficult for them, when with diligent studying the} 7 are be¬ 
yond their comprehension. The best machinery, run out of gear, 
tears itself to pieces; so the brightest talent, misplaced and misdi- 
directed, destroys itself. He who is out of his place, though igno¬ 
rantly or vainly mistaking his calling, can only work half-heartedly 
and so with no real success. It is only by giving oneself to his 
work with love for it and zeal in it that he can find the blessing it 
holds. Then, if we would excel in doing we must attain heights of 
being. A great deed is seldom done by one mighty effort; it results 
easily naturally from the accumulated force of years. 
It is steady application that achieves. The Holland woman knit¬ 
ting as she goes to market, may be stolid in intellect, but she teach¬ 
es a lesson in perseverance. Spasmodic efforts are futile. It re¬ 
quires so much force to overcome the inertia of illness that many 
sudden starts accomplish less than a little steady pulling. 
We waste a great deal of force in our noisy methods of work. 
The forces of nature act with perfect stillness. Light, that great¬ 
est of inanimate workers, makes no sound as, coming from its far- 
distant source, it pours each day its shining flood upon us; and 
from all the trees through which the vitalizing sap is coursing its 
busy way to-day, there comes not the faintest murmur to give to¬ 
ken of their ceaseless activity. As the peach receives sunshine and 
transforms it into sweetness, so we, working as quietly and per¬ 
sistently, should turn all culture into action. 
We are surrounded on every side by the results of that mighty 
transforming power, human effort. Our houses and books and 
pictures and machines are but concrete expressions of that grand 
product of human toil, civilization—an abstraction difficult to de¬ 
fine, because many-featured and complex-natured; indeed t need¬ 
ing no definition because itself speaking with myriad tongues 
through every avenue of sense. We rejoice in our American civil¬ 
ization as manifested in public and private works, and with some¬ 
thing of the pride a little girl feels as, hiding her pricked fingers, 
she displays her first price of needle-work, we, the world’s young¬ 
est workers, hiding our scars and bruises, and forgetting the strug¬ 
gles of a hundred years, now invite the world to examine our work 
and pronounce upon its merit. The verdict is sure to be favorable. 
Glorying in the civilization already attained, we can but wish for 
a higher; for that yet to be we are in a measure responsible. We 
