FURMAN 
 Address, 
 
 '^SiM 
 
ADDUE SS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 f O 
 
 THE QUEENS COUNTY 
 
 AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY, 
 
 AT ITS 
 
 TKIOIE© ^^^OVir^i^^Y, 
 
 AT 
 
 JAMAICA, 
 
 Thursday) October lOtli, 1§44. 
 
 BY GABRIEL FURMAN. 
 
 JAMAICA: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF "thE LONG ISLAND FARMER,'' 
 
 BY C. S. WATROUS. 
 
 1845. 
 
Jericho, October 29th, 1844. 
 
 Hon G. Fueman: 
 
 My Dear Sir: At a meeting of the Managers of the Queens County 
 Agricultural Society, held on the 10th inst., the following resolution was 
 adopted : 
 
 " Resdved unanimously: That we tender to the Hon. G. Furman our most 
 "sincere thanks for the able and interesting Address, so rich in histori- 
 "cal, scientific, and agricultural facts — which he has this day delivered 
 *' before our Society ; and that we most respectfully request he will fur- 
 "nish a copy for publication." 
 
 In discharging the very agreeable duty of transmitting to you a copy of 
 this resolution, I can but express the hope entertained, not only by the 
 officers of the Society, but by all who heard the Address, that you will 
 comply with this request. 
 
 I am, dear sir, very respectfully. 
 Your obedient servant, 
 Albert G. Carll, Corresponding Secretary. 
 
 Brooklyn, March 24th, 1845. 
 Albert G. Carll, Esq., Ccrrespcmding Secretary, etc. 
 
 Dear Sir: In accordance with the request of the Queens Col^ty Ag- 
 ricultural Society, I transmit to you a copy of the Address delivered 
 before them at their last Anniversary, for publication. 
 
 You will please accept my thanks for the kind manner in which you 
 signified to me the wish of the Society in that respect. 
 
 I am, dear sir, yours, very respectfully, 
 
 G. Furman. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 The formation of this Society to improve the Agricul- 
 ture of our Island, manifests in itself the opinion you 
 entertain of its importance, and renders it almost, if not 
 quite, unnecessary to call your attention to the usefulness 
 and high value of advanced knowledge in this main pur- 
 suit of life. 
 
 'It can only be requisite to remind you that the cultiva- 
 tion or the earth is that means of employment, above all 
 others, of which the Deity, ih his wasdomj, has expressed a 
 decided approbation— in showing us that tHe cultivation 
 of a garden, with the enjoyment of its fruits and flowers, 
 were the occupation and reward of man, when most per- 
 fect and in a state of primitive innocence ; and it is not a 
 little remarkable, and may, indeed, be regarded as a strong 
 internal evidence of the truth of that narrative of the pri- 
 meval condition of the human race, that a cultivated mind 
 and innocent heart still receive high pleasure from the 
 same pursuit. 
 
 Agriculture is truly the parent of all science, . uniting 
 men by the bonds of civil society, who, without its aid, 
 would continue to be wandering savages, as we may wit- 
 ness, duly substantiated, upon the frontiers of our country, 
 in the various stages of human life, from the roving Indian, 
 who subsists by the chase, through the first organization 
 of communities, where they throw off the habits of the 
 hunter state, with. its precarious means of living, for the 
 certain recompense arising from the culture of the soil, up 
 to the regular farmer, who tills hundreds of acres for the pro- 
 duction of grain. This cause, the great and paramount im- 
 portance of agriculture, its effects iri humanizing the world, 
 induced the ancients to worship it under the semblance of 
 Ceres, Pomona, etc., to deify the inventors of the plough, 
 and other means of culture, and to represent the enjoy- 
 ment of rural happiness and pursuits as the perfection of 
 theii: golden age. This honour and reverence for the 
 parent science have not been confined to particular nations, 
 but has extended over the whole world, wherever the soil 
 has been turned up and prepared for the receipt of the seed, 
 and its attendant blessings have ever been experienced. 
 
 It is not necessary for us to look beyond our own hem- 
 i^^phere for striking evidences of high ancient cultivation, 
 and the advantages which resulted to the community from. 
 
6 
 
 its practice long anterior to the discovery of America by 
 the Spaniards ; Peru, Central America, and Mexico up to 
 the Southern boundary of the United States were under a 
 a state of cultivation, far, very far, superior to any thing 
 which either of those countries have witnessed since their 
 European occupation. 
 
 Numerous wild and arid plains, which have not now for 
 ages produced ahead of grain, and some of them scarcely a 
 blade of grass, were then tilled like gardens : the nume- 
 rous terraced hills, and even mountains, the frequent re- 
 mains of canals and aqueducts for the purposes of irriga- 
 tion, all show the high advance which that ancient people 
 had made in the art of cultivating the earth. The result of 
 all this was an immense population, living in ease and 
 comfort, of which the earliest Spanish accounts, compared 
 with what they are now, or have been at any time during 
 the last two centuries, almost appear like fables, and 
 would truly be considered as such, but for the corrobora- 
 tion which they receive from the numerous architectural 
 and other remains scattered over the whole country, to an 
 extent which is truly surprising. 
 
 So, also, when the Northmen visited this Island and the 
 adjacent Continent, between the years 986 and 1100, 
 they found the Indian corn growing, and the grape in 
 abundance, — evidences showing a previous cultivation of 
 the soil, — it will be observed, that I speak of the visit 
 of the Northmen to this part of our country as a question 
 positively settled. I, in truth, regard it in that light. A 
 careful examination of the subject will show that their 
 description of the productions of the country, the length 
 of the day, and the appearance of the coast coincide in a 
 remarkable manner w-ith the United States, and with no 
 other country in the known world. Thus their Helluland 
 is Newfoundland, even yet remarkable for its naked, rocky 
 barrens, where not a tree or a shrub can grow ; their 
 Markland, with its forests and white sandy cliffs, is Nova 
 Scotia ; and their Vinland, so called from its grapes and 
 fruits, IS the country from Massachusetts to the Chesa- 
 peake Bay. Their voyages in the year 1000, (four hun- 
 dred years before the first voyage of Columbus) describe 
 an Island, on which they landed, w^hich is evidently our 
 Long Island ; the soil fertile, the air mild, and numerous 
 shrubs bearing sweet berries : after passing this Island, 
 they entered a river stored with salmon and other fish, 
 (which is also Hudson's description of the North River,) 
 where they wintered. Another and almost conclusive fact 
 is, that they state, that during the shortest day the sun 
 was above the horizon from dagmal to eikt, that is from 
 7^ A. M. to 4^ p. M. ; which makes the day equal to nine 
 
hours, and consequently tho hititude oftlie phice as near that 
 of the city of Neu-Vork, as well as could be ascertained 
 at that time. Verazzano, who visited this region in 
 1524, almost 200 years before Hendrick Hudson's first 
 voyage on the North River, and whose description, Dr. 
 Samuel Miller, a most able authority on such matters, re- 
 garded as applicable to the Bay and Harbour of New- 
 York, states that he found many grapes grow'ing with the 
 vines entwined around the trees, and running up on them, 
 as in the plains of Lorabardy. 
 
 He also states that they must have been held in estima- 
 tion, as the people carefully removed the shrubbery from 
 around them, to allow the fruit to ripen better, indicating 
 the relics of ancient cultivation. He also found " wild 
 roses, violets, lilies, and many kinds of plants and frag- 
 rant flowers," different from those of Europe. You will 
 not fail to recognize the similarity between the description 
 of the country and that of the Northmen between 4 and 
 500 years earlier. That this is the region indicated in 
 those very early voyages, and the Vinhmd of the Northmen 
 is rendered the more certain from the tirst history of New 
 Amsterdam, now New-York, by Vanderdonck, printed at 
 Antwerp, in 1650, which describes the whole country on 
 this Island, and about New-York, as being, when settled 
 by the Dutch, "full of many kinds of grapes." Speaking 
 of these grapes, the author also observes : " It is gratify- 
 ing and wonderful to see these natural productions, 
 and to observe such excellent and lovely fruit growing 
 wild :" and he further remarks, that " the country, when 
 the vines, are in bloom is perfumed with the lovely fragrance 
 of the blossoms, and it is delightful to travel at this season 
 of the year." What a beautiful description is this of 
 our own land, w'hen in its forest state ! We could 
 almost W'ish to have lived in that early age, if it 
 was only to stroll along the bridle roads and the In- 
 dian paths to inhale the lovely fragrance of the grape 
 blossoms in the Spring. This portion of our country, 
 and especially Long Island, is celebrated in all the an- 
 cient historical works treating of New- York or the Mid- 
 dle Colonies, for its rich, natural covering of flowers, 
 and its exuberance of fruits. In Denton's account, print- 
 ed at London, in 1670, the first W9rk describing the Colo- 
 nies of New-York and New Jersey in the English lan- 
 guage, a considerable portion is occupied with a beautiful 
 picture of this Island, which he styles a natural garden; and 
 of the parties, which we now call Pic J\''ics, which at that 
 early period made frequent excursions through its verdant 
 'fields to gather and eat the wild strawberries and other 
 fruits, then existing in profuse abundance. No one could 
 
 b2 
 
8 
 
 be more competent to a faithful description of Long Island 
 than this author, for he was many years an inhabitant of 
 this Island, and from 1656 to about 1669 resided in the 
 town of Jamaica, where we are now assembled, whiqli 
 tojvji he represented in the first Legislative Assembly .<?/. 
 th*e Colony of New-York, held under the English Govern- 
 ment, in the year 1665 j whi^h Assembly met at Hemp- 
 stead, in this county. 
 
 I have thought the preceding facts, exhibiting a con- 
 densed view of the early condition of our own land, 
 might not be uninteresting. But whatever may be said of 
 the high advance in agriculture and many of the arts, 
 ma^e by the ancient inhabitaiLts of Mexico, Central Ame- 
 rica and Peru, yet it must be admitted, that our Colonial 
 condition was not propitious to the cultivation of science : 
 out forefathers had great cind peculiar difficulties to sur- 
 mount, a W'ilderness to subdue, their physical wants |o 
 provide for, their personal and public rights to se- 
 cure, and the foundations of government' to settle: — : 
 and we are now realizing the benefits resulting from 
 their most arduous labours,- fcora their immense ' sacri- 
 fices of personal . cpmfort, of domestic/^ endearments, of 
 wealth and even of life itself— sacrifices which should en^ 
 dear their memories to us, and teach us to truly estimate 
 the, privileges which they purchased for t)ieir descendants 
 at such a cost — learn us never to trifle wath the true in- 
 terests of our country, nor to permit others to do so. 
 After their exertions nothing seems to be wanting among 
 us to promote the progress of science, but the aid and 
 sympathy of the public ; this encouragement is especially 
 due to every attempt similar to the objects designed by 
 this Association — to draw down science from lofty abstrac- 
 tion to practical use, and bring it home to men's business 
 and firesides. 
 
 The diffusion of knowledge is closely connected with 
 the happiness of society, and with the permanent prosperity 
 and true glory of our common country'. It appeals power- 
 fully to the wise and the good, to those noble minds who la- 
 bour not only for themselves, but also for posterity. In no 
 land under theface of the^un can such exertionsbe attended 
 with more immediate benefits, more enlarged and valuable 
 results, than that in which it is our happy lot to dwell. ■ 
 
 The land we inhabit is of vast extent, possessing every 
 variety of soil and climate, and abounding with all the najl- 
 ural advantages for a free, prosperous, and happy people. 
 The increase of our population has as yet found no resis- 
 tance in the want of the means of subsistence; its 
 tide is iuow swelling and overflowing in every direction, 
 \^i^l^, a, rapidity which has no equal in the kingdoms of 
 
nations of the old world. But this rapid increase of num- 
 bers will not be attended with a correspondent increase of 
 public tranquillity and happiness unless the region of the 
 intellect is cultivated, as well as that which yields a 
 supply to our physical wants : the wants of man are not 
 restricted to his b6dy; his s^l is filled with aspirations 
 after knowledge and faihe, \mh an ' insatiable thirst for 
 happiness, which seeks for its gratification, not in the en- 
 joyments of sense, but in the cultivation of the powers of 
 his intellectual and moral nature. The sentiments of pa- 
 triotism are not merely associated with the soil on which we 
 drew our first breath of life, but are made up of the recollec- 
 lectjons of the great men our country has produced, of their 
 heroic and beneficent actions, of affection for its institutions 
 and its fame. This sentiment should be cherished and invig- 
 orated by associating with it an enlightened love of freedom, 
 a. taste for knowledge, and an ardent enthusiasm for those 
 arts, which lend to human existence its enjoyments. 
 '. Could the future glories of our country be spread before 
 our astonished vision, could we but for a moment lift the 
 dark veil,, and look in upon the mighty nation, the thous- 
 ands, and tens, and hundreds of thousands, who will 
 swarm in the wide spreading, fruitful valleys of the 
 West, could we view the great nation which will, at 
 some future time, extend its borders from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific Ocean, and witness the immense trade of 
 a -world coming into this land, both from the East and 
 th'6 West, could we now read the future history of our 
 country, of the fie»ce struggles of contending partizans, of 
 the contests for different principle^ of governmental action, 
 of the threatened dangers to our institutions, could we 
 have futurity opened to us, but for a moment, and in the 
 vision see, all this, or a part of it — we should then know 
 the great truth, that all the happiness and prosperity 
 which awaits our country, depends upon the suprem- 
 acy of the mind, on the cultivation of the intellect, 
 on the diffusion of knowledge, not merely to a chosen 
 few, but to that immense multitude, who are at once 
 invested with the privileges of freemen, and the pre- 
 rogatives of power, and we would feel it a religious duty 
 to exert ourselves to the uttermost in carrjang out that 
 great and noble object — the education of a whole people. 
 No one branch of human industry owes more to science 
 thap does agriculture in our day; and, permit me, my 
 fellow-citizens, to congratulate . you on the advance of 
 science in this respect in our land. It was but a few 
 short years since, that it was esteemed no slight reproach 
 to style a man, " a hook-read farmer /" but who is there 
 now among you, let me ask, who does not, in the in- 
 
 b3 
 
10 
 
 creased amount ofhib crops, in their advanced value, in 
 their comparative fease of culture, in tfte facilities of a 
 market, and in numerous other results, se^.the benefits, the 
 open palpable advantages of book learnjhg applied to ag- 
 riculture, and yet, with all these advantages, we have only 
 taken the first step in the ejcq^d march.'^f agdcultural im- 
 provement. The prospedKe-ida.enSfits to result from the 
 application of science to agriculture is not, however, a new 
 idea or of modern invention. Many of our ancestors were 
 fully impressed with the belief of its truth, and adopted a 
 plan, somewhat analagous to your own, for its develop- 
 ment ; they, also, formed associations, having for their ob- 
 ject the improvement of this most valuable pursuit. A so- 
 ciety, for that purpose, was organized in New-York, in 
 1763, combining among its members, the most talented 
 and distinguished men in the Colony ; among whom were 
 Charles W. Apthorp, a member of the Council, and for a 
 long time a distinguished man in America; William Smith, 
 the historian of New-York ; Walter Rutherford ; John 
 Morin Scott, afterwards one of the first Major-Generals 
 in the American Revolution ; and James Duane, the cele- 
 brated banker of New-York. In their circular, which 
 they issued under the date of December 10, 1764, they 
 commence by stating : " A very laudable spirit for promo- 
 ting the welfare of this Colony begins to prevail here, 
 - — [New-York City] — a society is already formed, consis- 
 ting of persons of all ranks, who propose to advance hus- 
 bandry, promote manufactures, and suppress luxury. Sev- 
 eral hundred pounds are already subscri|3ed, and paid into 
 the hands of Mr. John Vanderspeigel, the treasurer ; the 
 society have thought fit 'to name us to be a committee of 
 correspondence with all those gentlemen at a distance, 
 who may be willing to lend their aid for the general weal 
 of the Colony." After stating the manner of subscription, 
 and, " that no subscription under twenty shillings will be 
 received," and, "that a subscription of five pounds entitles 
 the subscriber to vote in the disposal of the funds," they 
 proceed to urge the formation of a society in the neighbour- 
 hood of the persons addressed, in order to correspond with 
 the parent association in the city of New York, and to 
 furnish useful hints in relation to wl)at branches of hus- 
 bandry ought to be encouraged, and for what manufactures 
 premiums ought to be given ; and, in general, to suggest 
 all manner of proposals that may be for the public benefit, 
 in arts, manufactures, agriculture, and economy." And 
 they conclude, by observing, " you may be assured that a 
 proper respect will be paid to your schemes, hints, and 
 proposals, and that they will be regularly communicated 
 to the society at their monthly conventions," 
 
11 
 
 This circular was printed, and each of them subscribed 
 by the different members of the committee, in their own 
 proper hand-writing. I have one of them of the date be- 
 fore mentioned, thus subscribed, irorn which the foregoing 
 extracts are made. 
 
 This association was very useful in its day, and from its 
 history, is intimately connected with our Island ; it there- 
 fore requires no excuse for adverting to it on this occasion. 
 I find, from an inspection of its proceedings, that at a 
 meeting, held at the city of New-York, December 21st, 
 1767, that Society awarded to Thomas Young, of Oyster 
 Bay, in this county, a premium of <£T0, for a nursery of 
 27,123 apple trees, and, at the same meeting, certificates 
 were received and read from Joshua Clark and Francis 
 Furnier, both of Suflldk county, stating that from the year 
 1762 to April 1st, 1767, Clark had set out 3200 grape 
 vines, and that Furnier had in the same time set out 1551 
 grape vines; the description of grape is not specified, but 
 the matter was deemed of sufficient importance to be cer- 
 tified by this Society to a similar association in London, in 
 order that those gentlemen might there obtain a premium. 
 The New- York Society also speak of the business of 
 raising silk worms, and of silk throwing, as about being 
 then established in the Colony. 
 
 This was the only association of the kind in this State, 
 previous to the close of the revolutionary contest. After 
 the termination of that eventful contest, an association was 
 incorporated in this State, under the style of the "Society 
 for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures," 
 which continued in operation until May 4, 1804, when it 
 expired by the limitation in its charter, and the books, 
 papers, moneys, and effects passed over by Legislative au- 
 thority to the " Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts," 
 incorporated April 2, 1804, and of which Chancellor Liv- 
 ingston was the first President; and Ezra L'Hommedieu, of 
 Suffolk county, the first Vice President. This last associ- 
 ation, together with the Albany Lyceum of Natural His- 
 tory, which was established, "for the purpose of encoura- 
 ging the study and disseminating a knowledge of Natural 
 History, and other useful sciences," became merged, in 
 1829, in the Albany Institute, which still exists. There 
 were at various periods, previous to the commencement of 
 the present century, many enlightened individuals, who 
 exerted all their influence, both personally and in associ- 
 ation with others, to advance the cause of agriculture, yet 
 science made but small advances to its aid ; there were 
 popular prejudices to be overcome, which required ages of 
 patient toil in those worthy souls, who live for the gene- 
 ral cood, Hartliff, who was the friend of Milton, and who 
 
12 
 
 was pensioned by Cromwell for his agricultural writings, 
 states that old men, in his day, remembered the first gar- 
 deners, who came over to Surrey, in England,. and sold 
 turnips, carrots, parsnips, early peas, and rape seed, which 
 were then great rarieties, being imported from Holland. 
 Potatoes were first carried from America to England about 
 the year 1563, but they were not much known there until 
 about forty years after, and they continued for nearly a 
 century to be cultivated in gardens as a curious exotic, and 
 furnished a luxury only for the tables of the richest persons 
 in the kingdom. It appears in a MS. account of the house- 
 hold expenses of Queen Anne, the wife of King James I, 
 of England, that the price of potatoes was then one shil- 
 ling sterling a pound, about 22 cents of our currency. 
 
 The potatoe was long used in other portions of Europe, 
 before it was generally adopted in France ; so strong are 
 the prejudices of mankind, even in matters of the greatest 
 moment. The French proscribed it because they imagined 
 that various disorders were occasioned by its use, and it 
 was more than two hundred years before the popular pre- 
 judices in that country were entirely overcome, and then 
 only through the instrumentality of that celebrated and 
 distinguished chemist, Parmentier. During the war of 
 1756, he was surgeon in the. army of Hanover, and was 
 taken prisoner ; whilst in prison he frequently had no 
 other food than the potatoe ; he analyzed the qualities of 
 the root, and on his return to Paris, after the Peace of 
 1763, he pursued his investigations with increased zeal. 
 The dearth of the year 1769, called the attention of the 
 French minister to the vegetables, which were calculated 
 to supply the place of bread and corn, — and the Potatoe 
 was attempted to be introduced : the old clamor revived, 
 and- it was again proscribed, and would have been rejects 
 ed as poisonous, if Parmentier had not vindicated its cha- 
 racter and usefulness in a prize essay, submitted to the 
 Academy of Besancon ; his exertions did not stop hexe| 
 he cultivated it himself, and persuaded the nobility to put 
 it on their tables, and induced the king to wear a boquet/of 
 potatoe blossoms at a Levee, or on a solemn Fast Day. 
 He also studied the most palatable mode for its culinary 
 preparation, and, on one occasion, gave a dinner consisting 
 of potatoes only, served up in twenty different forms. 
 The opposition he met with may be estimated from the 
 fact, that when, during the French Revolution, it was pro- 
 posed to elect him to a municipal office, he was opposed 
 on the aground, that " he would make the common people 
 eat nothing but potatoes :'' "for," said one of the voters^ 
 " it is he who invented them.'' But his favourite vegetable 
 came into general use, and with complete success, and he 
 
had the gratification, in his old age, of seeing whole districts 
 formerly barreny fertilized and ^rendered habitable, and 
 great' n-umbers of people, through his instrumentality, 
 saved' ftbm the horrors of famine.* ■ ; -• • 
 
 I have introduced this short history of the potatoeto ex- 
 hibit to your view, the astonishing iorce of popular- preju- 
 dice, and how necessary it is for us to guard against ityand 
 not prejudge any thing of moment, or form an opinion upon 
 any matter of importance, without a fair and candid exami- 
 nation. Here was the potatoe, a most important article of 
 food, and now forming a most valuable addition to the 
 means of subsistence for the w'orld, totally excluded from 
 France, and proscribed as poisonous for a period extending 
 from 1563 down to within the last sixty years. 
 
 All that had been done for the cause of science, -during- 
 the past three centuries, will, howevier, scarcely beat a 
 comparison with what has been effected within the last 
 half century; indeed, the discoveries and improvements; 
 made in the mechanical arts since the year 1814, 'have' 
 been really astonishing, and they are now working a 
 mighty revolution in the affairs of this world, most 
 ^rtainly and surely ; they may be estimated as follows f 
 ^ In 1816, printing by steam power; stereotype plates^ 
 the circular saw ; sugar from beet roots ; anthracite coal$' 
 lithographic impressions. "'i 
 
 In 1817, musical boxes. ■:'! 
 
 In 1820, safety lamps; chain cables of iron. ■' 
 
 In 1832, the chrononieter perfected ; power looms fo^ 
 cloths, stockings, etc.; the stomach-pump, (an invention: 
 which has saved the lives of thousands, and thereforeji 
 worthy of special notice) ; railways ; locomotive steam-en^ 
 gines ; general working of lead and coal mines in the Uni*J 
 ted States. ! // 
 
 1833, gum elastic boots, shoes, and cloths. The amount^ 
 of money saved in the use of these articles is great — prob-' 
 ably far beyond the estimate of any one who has not raadfr 
 a careful examination of the subject. r , ..l! 
 
 * His reward for his unwearied exertions, and his self-sacrificeg for the 
 public benefit, i^is tnie, came late ; but now, it seems, as if the French peopfei 
 could not d6 too much to immortalize his name. The town of Mouraidieri' 
 in the department of Soinme, in France, a little over a year a^o, wer^ 
 erecting a bronze statue to the memory of this illustrious pnilosopTier, who' 
 introduced the culture and use of the potatoe into France ; thus venfyipg' 
 the prediction of the unfortunate Louis XVI, who obsers'ed to Pamien'tier, 
 during the height, of his strusdes in the labour of love: "France wiU thank 
 you one day for ha\'ina: found bread for the poor." . ):;; 
 
 The najue of the Citizen King, Louis Philippe, heads the stvbscription &i 
 he erection of this memorial of public gratitude ; and it is followed by the 
 principal scientific and agricultural societies in that kingdom,, and aleq by' 
 the most distinguished friends of science and humanity. Subscriptions 
 were likewise opened in every district in France, so that all might join in 
 testifying their respect for the memory of Parmentier. 
 
14 
 
 But what truly astonishing results have the last fifty 
 years produced in our country! A half century since and 
 cities, now full of thousands of souls, were the hunting 
 grounds of the Indians, and covered only Wita the forest or 
 swamp. Fifty years ago and the city of iNew-York had 
 but about 33,1)00 inhabitants, and has now near 350,000. 
 Brooklyn, her adjunct then had but a population of 250 
 souls, and now nuniii)ers about 50,000. Jioston, then 18,000 
 inhabitants, has now near 100,000. Baltimore, which 
 then possessed but 13,000 people, now has 100,000; and 
 Philadelphia, with a population then numbering 40,000, 
 has now about 280,000. What an increase in population, 
 wealth, and power has been added to our country in one 
 short half century ! The world has no parallel to it in its 
 history. 
 
 Fifty years ago and we had nothing of the gigantic pow- 
 ers of steam; no steamboats stenuning the currents of our 
 rivers, at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles an hour ; and 
 no rail roads traversing our land in every direction at a 
 speed of from 12 to 30 miles an hour : formerly, before the 
 use of steam upon our waters, it sometimes occupied a 
 "w^eek and even a longer time, in passing from New-York to 
 Albany, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles; but now 
 in the great resolution produced by the march of science, 
 the steam-packet-ship, Britannia, which arrived in Boston 
 from the port of Liverpool a few days since, in that pas- 
 sage lost sight of the British coast, and made the coast of 
 Newfoundland, in just seven days ; one week in crossing 
 the Atlantic. Fifty years ago the worthy fathers and 
 mothers of the present generation were willing to dress in 
 their own homespun fabrics ; the busy wheel was whirring 
 by their firesides, the knitting needles were plied, and 
 wool woven in the house, and the finer cloths dressed at 
 the fulling mill of the neighborhood, — all which has given 
 way to the spacious and magnificent factories of the pre- 
 sen^day. Time is now too valuable, with the majority of 
 the people, to be occupied as then, in work which can be 
 better and cheaper done by machinery. 
 
 And the waterfall and the steam engine, with the im- 
 proved spindles and other machines now supply the labour 
 of thousands, and manufacture millions of yards of cloths, 
 cotton goods, etc., w^here half a century since only a few 
 hundreds were made. 
 
 In all this advance of science, agriculture and its imple- 
 ments have been concerned and have participated ; from 
 1793 to 1830, the plough has been made to undergo one 
 hundred and twenty-four improvements, and one hundred 
 and nineteen thrashing machines were invented during the 
 same period. 
 
15 
 
 Thus Imve we progressed, not only in the arts but also 
 in the luxuries of life. A little more than two hundred 
 years ago sugar was kept for sale only in the shop 
 of the apothecary; now, the annual consumption in the 
 United States alone is eighty millions of pounds! It 
 is almost startling^ to look forwi.rd to the comine: half 
 century, and to estimate our progress for the future at 
 any thing like that of the past. Where it may terminate 
 human judgment cannot foresee; but we have the assu- 
 rance of Almighty wisdom for the belief, that mankind 
 are now proo-ressing to a state of perfection which the 
 world has never as yet known ; how long it may be before 
 we arrive at that state — what trials and conflicts we may 
 nationally and individually be called upon to pass through 
 before we attain it, — we must and should leave to his Om- 
 niscience. 
 
 The improvement of agriculture in this great march of 
 knowledge has been in a high degree owing to the in- 
 creased amount of geological information abroad in the 
 world, which science, together with astronomy, as they 
 now present themselves to an inquiring mind, possesses a 
 more overpowering immensity than all the other branches 
 of human knowledge. The first informs us that the earth 
 produced plants and animals at one time, when the very 
 stones of the oldest ruins which now exist were only mud 
 or sand, and of a gigantic form and order almost incom- 
 prehensible. Astronomy also teaches us that the sun of 
 our system with the orbs that ceaselessly wheel around it, 
 form but a very small and almost insignificant portion of 
 the great and immense system of creation, with which 
 they are connected, and that our whole solar system is 
 itself revolving around some unknown centre, and that 
 with a rapidity almost unappreciable. It has been ascer- 
 tained within the last quarter of a century, that our whole 
 solar system, as one body is passing with almost incon- 
 ceivable velocity, in the direction of the constellation Her- 
 cules, which passage, it is evident, cannot take place at 
 hap-hazard and by chance, through the spheres of the vari- 
 ous other luminaries of the heavens, but must be made up- 
 on some orbit regularly settled and defined, although our 
 knowledge is not now sufficient to ascertain the extent 
 and shape of that orbit, and the history of man's observa- 
 tion is spread over too brief a space of time to enable us to 
 ascertain its progress in this vast revolution. The prece- 
 ding may be regarded as one of the wonders of astronomy ; 
 its sister science, geology, exhibits numerous facts, equally 
 calculated to excite our astonishment. 
 
 In that formation in geology, known as the lias, being 
 the first richly fossil formation overlaying the more ancient 
 
16 
 
 one of the old red sand stone, we discover, for the first 
 time in the geological system, indications of a change of 
 seasons ; the frosts of winter had not as yet made their ap- 
 pearance in the world, all seems to have been Spring and 
 Suminer before throughout the whole globe, and thai; -for 
 ages : and now many ages after, we find in this lias forma- 
 tion, the footsteps of Winter, impressed amid the lignites 
 of Cromarty ; and there you may see the alternations of 
 Summer-heats and Winter-cold as distinctly marked, for 
 the first tiine^ in the age of the world, as in the trees of 
 our forests.- Before Winter began to take its place among 
 the seasons, the fish, fitted for living in a highly heated 
 medium, disappeared ; they were created, as is agreed 
 .by all distinguished- geologists of the present day, to in- 
 habit a thermal ocean, and died away as it cooled down ; 
 and so in the same manner disappeared gradually our gigan- 
 tic palms and vegetables, and our immense animals, lor 
 this change was a work of time ; they had performed the 
 part allotted by the Creator, and having finished their 
 task, they rested from their labors.* 
 
 • These changes have not been confined to the ocean, 
 but have progressed throughout the whole extent of crea- 
 tion ; eritire races of animals and plants have disappeared, 
 as the form of the earth's surface and the degree of heat 
 upon it, became ill adapted to their wants ; and others of a 
 different class came in and supplied their places, as is 
 teanifesf, in many striking instances. ' , .. • 
 
 Our own country exhibits some curious examples of this 
 ^eat change. In excavating the canal at Zanesville, in 
 •Ohio, numerous impressions of tropical and other plants 
 were found. Among them were the leaves of the cocoa nut 
 tree, the bearing palm leaf twenty inches in length, the roots, 
 trunks, limbs, and leaves, of the bamboo ; the trunks, 
 limbs, leaves, and even the blossoms of the cassia ; the 
 cinnamon tree ; the petals even of these blossoms were 
 entire, and uninjured, showing^^MMiclusively that they 
 igTew near the spot where they were found. But what 
 immense changes must have taken place in our climate 
 since the cocoa nut and the cinnamon tr€e flourished in the 
 Valley of the Ohio ! 
 
 ' Still greater and more astonishing chajiges must have hap- 
 pened since the animals of the fervid zone lived and flour- 
 ashed within what is now the Arctic Circle : that they did 
 «o at some former age is evident from the numerous discov- 
 ;eries made there within the last century. The whole soil 
 of the first of the Lachone Islands appears to consist of the 
 
 ■*See Hueh Miller's "Old Red Sand Stone of ScotUnd ; or, New Walks 
 'jnuirOWFidd." ■ 
 
17 
 
 remains of the elephant,, mastadon, and the mammoth. 
 For about eighty years the fur hunters have yearly brought 
 cargoes from this island, and as yet there is no sensible 
 diminutipn of the stock; they maintain that when the 
 sea, recedes, af);er a long continuance of easterly winds, 
 a fresh supply of these bones is always found to have 
 been washed upon the shore, proceeding, apparentiy, 
 from some vast store at the bottom of the sea ; as if. 
 some large tract of land, enjoying the advantages of 
 a warm climate, and inhabited by an immense number 
 of animals, by some mighty convulsion, had been instant- 
 ly submerged by the ocean. 
 
 The Faroe Islands, lying between the Orkney Islands 
 and the Arctic Circle, afford another singular instance of this, 
 change. ..On these islands there is now no wood grow- 
 ing, an4 h^s not been a,ny for a very long period of time, 
 which is attributed to the cold, high winds, and the salt 
 fogs from the sea ; and yet, the great number of large birc.h 
 tre^s found in the naosses on those islands, proye that they 
 formerly grew and. thrived there. And so ^lso,we learn 
 from Dr. Aikin, that although the Fens of Ely, in ^J}g-, 
 land, now produce nothing but osiers and willows, yetthq 
 bodies of oaks of large dimensions, and other trees are 
 frequently dug up in the Jowest and wettest tracts, which, 
 proves that this extensive section of country which now; 
 requires a continued and active drainage to make it habit-r, 
 able, at some remote period was well wooded, and was, 
 probably, in great part a forest. 
 
 Does not all this prove that the earth, at some former 
 period, enjoyed a higher degree of temperature, than alf 
 present, and presented a very different aspect than that of 
 its present appearance 1 ; . i 
 
 But for one further proof, let me refer to Iceland, a coua-j 
 try, icertainly cold and bleak enough at present. On both 
 the eastern and western coasts of this island, are fountj 
 beds of bituminous wood, which the natives call surtwn 
 brand, burnt wood. They also find there a grey colored 
 slate containing very many impressions of leaves, exhibit-t 
 ing in a most beautiful manner, all their veins, ribs, ancl 
 fibres. Among these are the leaves of the willow, birch 
 arid oak, some of the latter as large as a man's hand, anq 
 also the leaves of the common poplar, a native of thq- 
 warm plains of Lombardy. Most of the wood appear^ 
 like large trunks of trees, on which the marks of branches^ 
 five or six inches in diameter, are found. These remainsF- 
 are found in clay, interposed between them and the trap 
 rocks, formed by the tremendous volcanic eruptions, t& 
 which that island has been subject to from the most disr 
 tant ages, and the force of the compressions hag been so 
 
18 
 
 immense as to compress trees a foot in diameter into their 
 plates. 
 
 What a change in the earth must have taken place since 
 the period when those trees grew in Iceland, where now 
 nothing thrives but a stunted willow, two or three feet 
 high ! 
 
 Some who have not paid much attention to the great 
 changes which have taken place in our earth, suppose these 
 trees to have been drift wood, which is not, in my judg- 
 ment, a very reasonable suj)position, as they are found, in 
 many instances, far from the shore and elevated hundreds 
 of feet above it; and they find no drift wood of the species 
 of trees existing in the present day, with their leaves and 
 branches so fresh and perfect, cast upon their shores. And 
 what more extraordinary is it, let me ask, that those trees 
 should have grown in Iceland, than it is, that the forests of 
 birch trees should have grown upon the now barren Faroe 
 Isles : or the oaks in the watery Fens of Ely ; or the cin- 
 namon tree, the bamboo, the palm, and the cocoa nut 
 should have grown in the Valley of the Ohio? How these 
 changes were produced, is an interesting inquiry. These 
 facts separately, but not in a connected view, have long 
 excited the attention of the curious, and theory, contra- 
 dicting theory, has been formed and again abandoned in 
 the endeavour lo point out some adequate cause for these 
 great results, until at last many have abandoned the task 
 as hopeless, and have contented themselves to regard these 
 matters as being inexplicable. 
 
 The error with most of us has been, that we have 
 looked upon this little spot of earth, on this mere speck 
 in the Almighty's great creation, for the cause of all these 
 revolutions ; and we have have had our bold theories, as 
 they were sometimes termed, of the action of fire and 
 water as contained in the globe itself, w^hen in truth they 
 were but the agents acted upon by some great cause with- 
 out; or, at the best and the farthest, w^e have extended our 
 vision to the sun as the centre of our system, and as being 
 the only body acting upon us ; and then talked about its 
 attraction, and descanted wisely and learnedly, as w-e sup- 
 posed, of the changing of the poles of the earth, and by 
 this means placing part of our temperate regions with the 
 frozen seas under the fervid rays of an equatorial sun ; but 
 the advocates for that system seem not to have adverted to 
 the fact, and a most important one it is, that w^hile we find 
 the remains of the elephant in Siberia, and even almost 
 under the North Pole, and forests of the palm tree in 
 France and Germany, the cinnamon tree in the Valley of 
 the Ohio, and tropical plants with the crocodile in 
 England : none of the remains of either animal or vegeta- 
 
19 
 
 ble life peculiar to the Arctic Regions, have ever been 
 found in the tropics or any where else, except as modern 
 deposits in the icy regions, above the more ancient relics 
 of a warmer clime ; and, also, that the first appearance of 
 Winter in the earth's history is registered by the hand of 
 the Almighty in his eternal record, which cannot be fal- 
 sified. 
 
 In my judgment, the explanation of the cause of these 
 great changes and convulsions which have taken place in 
 our world, is to be found in the revolution of the whole solar 
 system, as one mass, to which I adverted when speaking 
 of astronomy. We have only to suppose, as almost every 
 thing about us would seem to indicate, for all the orbits 
 of the planets are elliptical, that this immense revolution 
 is also performed upon an elliptical orbit, and it must be 
 evident, that at some very distant period of time, the earth, 
 with the rest of the solar system, must have been at a 
 point of that great orbit, which placed it comparatively 
 near, and under the active influence of some immense 
 central body, of the size and influence of which, our sun will 
 scarcely afford the slightest conception, (for such a revolu- 
 tion of the whole solar system, as is admitted to be now 
 making, a moment's consideration wnll show, cannot be 
 made unless it be around some central body proportioned 
 to the size of the bodies revolving,) the heat and vivify- 
 ing properties of which would induce a monstrous growth 
 of animals and vegetables, the remains of which we now 
 discover, which increase of size was gradual, as the orbit 
 was travelled over until it arrived at its maximum, when 
 an universal equatorial heat pervaded the whole world, as 
 is proved by the fossil remains found on and in every part 
 of it, and that as the whole system receded on the oppo- 
 site side of the orbit from this great centre, the heat would 
 gradually decrease, and with it the size of animals and 
 vegetables ; but the utmost limit of that orbit is probably 
 not so far distant from its centre, as to cause a total 
 destruction of animal and vegetable life, or to deprive the 
 earth of its torrid zone near its centre, and this passage 
 from the centre would also serve to recruit the earth, and 
 to enable it, when it again reaches a certain point of that 
 great orbit, to sustain animal and vegetable life through- 
 out its whole extent, as it appears to have done at some 
 former period ; and also the approach to and the depar- 
 ture from this centre must inevitably cause great natural 
 convulsions, by the earth being greatly heated in ap- 
 proaching towards it, and cooling down when it recedes 
 from it. 
 
 This, in my opinion, explains the finding of tropical 
 fruits and animals all over the globe. This is my theory : 
 
20 
 
 one on which I have thought much and patiently, and it is 
 the only one which is at all reconciliable with the numer- 
 ous facts which modern geology has brought to light ; and 
 this is perfectly consistent with all of them. On jio other 
 syste;m than this of an elliptical revolution, around some 
 impiensely greater centre than our sun, can be explained, 
 those curious facts which have been recently brought to 
 light by the investigations of M. Agassiz among the gla- 
 ciers of Switzerland. That such an immense centre as I 
 ha\;e spoken of may, and probably does, exist, we will 
 the more readily believe when w^e recollect, that as large 
 as our sun is, as immense in size as it is, compared with 
 our earth and the other planets of our particular system, 
 yet it bears no proportion to sonie others of the fixed stars, 
 the suns of other systems; as, for instance, the star, Alpha, 
 in the constellation, Lyra. That one star is well ascer- 
 tained by the geometrical problem of the parallex, to be 
 nearly as large as the whole of the known solar systeoi^if 
 this system was formed into a solid sphere ! HereiWe have 
 alone, a sun sufficiently large to produce all the effects 
 which I have ascribed to the great centre operating upon 
 Qur system. What an immense body must that star. Al- 
 pha, be ! The conceiving of the idea alone is almost 
 overwhelming. What pigmies! — mere nothings ! — we are 
 "vvhen w^e regard the immensity of creation !* 
 il'Thus I have exhibited to your view some of the aston- 
 ishing discoveries of modern geology, a science intimately 
 connected with agriculture, and which is destined to pour 
 untold wealth into the hands of the farmers, if they will 
 only attend to its instructions. In it, however, I have 
 given you a very concise statement of the facts, for this is 
 not the place, and neither would time permit, to enter upon 
 tiiis noble and interesting theme at large. We must still, 
 
 •*Thi3 view of the changes produced in our earth, and the cause operating 
 10 produce those changes, I first gave to the public five or six years ago, in 
 epme lectures which I delivered at the request of literary associations in 
 oiti'erent places ; but it was long before I met with anything lilie support in 
 fliS principle I had thus adbptea. It is, therefore, with no slight gratitication 
 
 ?!iat I now see some celebrated men of Europe turning their eyes in the 
 ame direction ; they sought for, and examined the causes operating in 
 tfie earth itself, until they became satisfied that they were inadequate to the 
 results produced, and have been obliged to look for those causes beyond, the 
 Boundaries of our globe, Thus, Professor Nichols, of Glasgow, the celebra- 
 Hd author of" The Architecture of the Heavens,"' in his last Work, entitled 
 ".Contemplations on the Solar Systeip.," second edition, Edinburgh, 1844, 
 page 151, after remarking upon the usual method of explaining the niighty' 
 convulsions and changes which our earth has experienced! exclaimed : 
 "How utterly the whole fair speculation vanishes before one glance into the 
 universe farther than our own door steps !"' and he concludes with the wise 
 r«commendation s ^'Ply thy hammer, geologist ! continue to plv it well ; but 
 sometimes, also, look through the telescope." This is, indeed, a wise 
 recommendation, and if followed up by a connection of astronomy with ge- 
 ology, it will cause most of the difficulties which at present attend tha ex- 
 planation of geological discoveries, to vanish like oust before th^ fjsing 
 sua. ''"■' 
 
however, bear in mind, that notwithstanding all the ad- 
 vance made in geology, all the wonders exhibited to our 
 sight and our imagination, we are as yet upon the thresh- 
 old of the great temple of creation, and can only hope to 
 realize its benefits by a continued and active prosecution 
 of its study. 
 
 Agriculture also exhibits its curious and surprising phe- 
 nomena, independent of geology, and some of which are 
 as worthy of attention and curious research. 
 
 Among the phenomena is the interesting fact, that seeds 
 will retain their germinating principle, if covered from the 
 action of the atmosphere, for an indefinite length of time ; 
 as is evident from facts of frequent occurrence. 
 
 Let any one dig down into a bed of mere gravel or sand 
 forty feet or more, in the month of November or Decem- 
 ber, and throw up the gravel or sand from the lowest 
 depth, and spread it out to the action of the atmosphere, 
 the next Spring it will be covered by a thin coating of 
 grass, which could only be caused by the seed which had 
 remained in the ground at that great depth, germinating 
 upon being brought to the surface, so as to enable the de- 
 gree of heat necessary for that process. People frequently 
 labor under a great mistake as to what is soil ; they gene- 
 rally suppose it to be confined to within a foot or 18 inches 
 of the surface, whereas the truth is, if they turn up the 
 poorest sand, gravel or clay, from any depth, however 
 great, and expose it to the chemical action of the atmos- 
 phere for a single wanter, it becomes soil ; of course the 
 longer it remains so exposed, the better it becomes. The 
 fault is in not ploughing or digging deep enough ; for by 
 ploughing deep, they may make any depth of soil they 
 please, when, by their ordinary shallow ploughing, they 
 confine their soil to within 18 inches of the surface. 
 
 A most striking instance of the vitality of ancient seed, 
 was manifested in France, in 1832, where a gentleman 
 planted a quantity of seed wheat from an Egyptian mum- 
 my. It sprouted, and was growing with vigor, although 
 it was ascertained to be two thousand two hundred and 
 fifty years old. It was precisely like our ordinary wheat, 
 and served to show the identity of the corn of the ancients 
 with our gi*ain, and it also upset the notion that wheat 
 was once nothing but cheat, and owes its present differ- 
 ence from it to cultivation. 
 
 Another and even an older instance of this Egyptian 
 wheat occurred in England, where, at a meeting of the 
 East Suffolk Agricultural Association, in 1838, a sample 
 of wheat was presented, grown from seeds taken from an 
 Egyptian mummy, which was said to have been encased 
 three thousand five hundr?d years ! 
 
-yj 
 
 It was exhibited by W'ra. Long, lllse-j., of Hart IIhII, and 
 was white wheat, the ears of which were considerably 
 larger and broader than the ears of English wheat, ap- 
 pearing to grow double on one stem, and the straw was 
 long and stout. The practice of the ancient Egyptians 
 was to enclose grains of wheat in the mummy cases 
 before depositing them in their resting places; but that 
 the wheat should retain its vital principle through so many 
 ages, is to be regarded as one of those great wonders in 
 the economy of nature, which baffles the skill of man to 
 solve. Much indeed has been done for the advance- 
 ment of science, for the promotion of agriculture, and for 
 the cause of natural history generally, during the present 
 century, and the exertions which have Ijeen thus made will 
 confer honor and distinction upon their promoters for ages 
 to come. To no one individual do we owe more for his 
 labours and exertions in this noble held, than to a native 
 of our own Island, the late Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell ; a 
 name which will live and be honoured by posterity ; in- 
 deed every succeeding age will add to the appreciation of 
 his unwearied life in the prosecution of science. For a 
 long period he was almost alone in the pursuit of his favo- 
 rite studies, having but few who felt a real and active sym- 
 pathy with him. 
 
 It was indeed difficult to convince the people generally 
 that inquiries of natural history were of any advantage in 
 their business pursuits ; they thought it might do well 
 enough for a man who was independent in his circumstan- 
 ces and had no particular business occupation to devote 
 his time to such pursuits, but otherwise they esteemed it 
 both a waste of time and money. He had, however, the 
 gratification to see first one and then another association 
 rising up into existence, for the furtherance of those par- 
 ticular objects which he had so much at heart, and now, 
 if as some wise and holy men have believed, the happy 
 spirits in another state of existence experience high pleas- 
 ure in observing the good actions of mankind, with what 
 delight must he witness those pursuits in which he took 
 so great an interest when living, now prosecuting not only 
 by individual enterprise, but also fostered and encouraged 
 by the Government itself, in the several geological sur- 
 veys which have been made of different States, and in 
 the aid which has been given towards the establishment of 
 agricultural associations. 
 
 The memory of Dr. Mitchell should be cherished by us 
 especially ; his name is identified with researches of which 
 we are now reaping the advantages, and his life was 
 Spent in advancing the interests of his fellow-men ; such 
 
4,0 
 
 a man is worthy of all coiauicndation, and for example's 
 sake should not be forgotten. 
 
 The farmer is truly the lord of the soil, and his position 
 in society the most independent of all its members. The 
 leisure which Winter a flfords from the labours of agriculture 
 gives him an opportunity for storing his mind with useful 
 knowledge, which few, very few, in tlie active pursuits of 
 life can ever hope to gain. There is every opportunity for 
 him in this country to take the lead in all the affairs of the 
 nation if he chooses so to do. 
 
 But to occupy such a position with honor to himself and 
 advantage to those interests which he dearly cherishes, l.e 
 must cultivate his intellect, and in no way can he do this 
 more effectually, than following up the study of natural 
 history, so intimately connected with his agricultural pur- 
 suits. Every step taken in such a course of study will 
 open new beauties until the mind becomes perfectly fasci- 
 nated with that, which at first might have been regarded 
 as a task. The whole man becomes changed ; his nobler 
 faculties and pleasing traits of character become more and 
 more predominant over the others, until at last the latter 
 are entirely hidden from his view. 
 
 It has been said that angels can read songs and anthems, 
 glorious themes of praise to the Most High in the arrange- 
 ment of the flowers upon the surface of our earth. The 
 delighted student of natural science will find this practi- 
 cally true ; the small flower of the meadow, which he had 
 before probably passed hundreds of times, without notice, 
 will now afford him more ennobling conceptions of the 
 Deity, more heartfelt gratitude for the bounties and beau- 
 ties so profusely spread before him, than he had ever be- 
 fore attained from any source. 
 
 I am willing to be thought enthusiastic on such a sub- 
 ject, but let me commend it to the practical use of each of 
 you who now hear me ; try it for youselves, and I will 
 then venture to assert that you will, when fairly initiated, 
 rather think that I have been tame instead of glow-ing in 
 my description of the advantages resulting from such a 
 course of vStudy. 
 
 The value of a continued and active exercise of the men- 
 tal faculties will be properly appreciated, w^hen we consi- 
 der that this ennobling principle was given us for the pur- 
 pose of directing and controlling our powers and animal 
 propensities, and for bringing them into that subjection 
 whereby they become beneficial to the individual and to 
 the world at large ; enabling him to exchange with others 
 those results which the power of his own, and the gigan- 
 tic efforts of other minds, have developed and bringing 
 into action those characteristics of social life, and those af- 
 
24 
 
 fections which alone are calculated to make our present 
 state of being happy. 
 
 Independently of the utility of study, what a world of 
 delight, hidden from the view of the mass of mankind, is 
 opened to the mental vision of him, who has devoted a 
 portion of his time to the investigation of the truths of 
 science. The prosecution of such studies, however labo- 
 rious in the outset, soon become their own reward, in the 
 overflowing pleasures they create. 
 
 One great advantage of associations, like the present, is 
 that a desire for the acquisition of knowledge is kindly 
 fostered and brought to a maturity which developes itself 
 for the benefit of mankind. They also create and encour- 
 age a spirit of inquiry, which is of the highest moment. 
 For without a desire of knowing the designs and proces- 
 ses of things, no investigation will be bestowed, and we 
 will remain in ignorance of all, but the bare facts and 
 gross perceptions of creation ; nor can it be questioned 
 but that the more extensive our acquaintance is with the 
 objects of Providence, in the same proportion must be our 
 convictions of the justice, wisdom, and power of the Al- 
 mighty Creator. 
 
 It is an old proverb, that he who aims at the sun to 
 be sure will not reach it, but his arrow wull fly higher than 
 if he had aimed at an object on a level with himself; just 
 so should it be in the establishment of all associations of 
 this character, set your standard high, and though you 
 may not reach it at first, you will not fail to raise higher 
 than if you had aimed at some inferior grade of usefulness. 
 Who can say what may be the result, when each individ- 
 ual of this and similar associations, shall go forth in their 
 strength imbued with a high moral principle, to the great 
 work of enlightening the public mind ; when they view 
 tiieir societies as the means of blessing the community, as 
 well as of benefitting themselves, and when they exert 
 their abilities in scattering around them that taste for 
 knowledge which they have learned to appreciate. If 
 each one will bear this in mind, and also that he owes, as 
 a duty to his country, his aid in this matter, the conse- 
 quence will be triumphant for the cause of science. 
 
 THE END. 
 
F LTRR V^y 
 
 A 000 564 933