The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1857-11-25
EXTRACT FROM All ADDRESS,
N. I. State Agricultural Society,
AT BUFFALO,, OCT. 9, 1857.
By HON. EDWARD EVERETT.

Are" speaking in the person OF Cato the
| Elder, to whom l have already referred,
when he comes to consider the pleasures
within the reach of the aged, gives the
most prominent place to those which may
be enjoyed by agricultural pursuits.
These, be adds, are not impaired by the
advance of years, and approach, as near
rs possible, to the ideal g life of the Wise
Man" Guided by the light Of nature,
he. contemplated with admiration that
power" as he calls it, of the earth, by
| which it is enabled to return to the hus-
bandman, with usury, what was COM
mitted to its trust. 1t belongs to us, IA
eored with knowledge of the spiritual
| relations of the universe not vouchsafed
to the heather world, to look upon agrl-
culture in higher aspects, especially in the
advance of life; and as we move forward
ourselves toward the great crisis Of our
being, to catch an intelligent glimpse of
the grand orcuna of nature, as exhibited
in the creative energy of the territorial
elements,-the suggestive mystery of the
quickening seed, and the sprouting plant;
the resurrection of universal nature
/ from her wintry grave.
A celebrated scept;cal philosopher of
the last centdry-the historian Hume
thought to demolish the credibility Of the
Christian Revelation, BY the concise argu-
ment 1T is contrary to experience that
o miracle should be true, but not contrary
10 experience ths testimony should be
false The last part Of the proposition,
especially in a free country, on the eve Of
popular election, is, unhappily, too well
founded; but in what book-worm's dusty
1 cell, tapestried with the cobwebs of ages,
| where the light Of real life and nature
never forced it's way in what pedants
school, where deaf ears listen to dumb
! lips, and blind followers arc led by blind
! guides, did he learn that it is contrary
/ to experience that 4 miracle should be
| true? Most certainly he never learned it
/ from sewer or reaper,-from dumb ami
| nal, or rational man connected with hys-
/ bandry--poor Red Jacket off here on
I Buffalo Greek, if he could have compre-
hended the terms Of the proposition,
would have treated it with scorn. Con-
trary to experience that phenomena should
exist which we cannot trace to causes per-
ccptible to the human sense, or conceiva-
| bic by human thought? 1t would be
much nearer the truth to say that within
the husbandman's experience there are
no phenomena which can be. nationally
traced to anything but the instant energy
Of creative power.
Did this philosopher ever contemplate
the landscape at the close of the year.
when seeds, and grains, and fruits have
ripened, and stalks have withered and
leaves have fallen, and winter has forced
her icy curb even into the roaring jaws of
Niagara, and sheeted half continent in
her glittering shroud, and all this teeming
vegetation and organized life are locked
in cold and marble obstruction and, after
week upon week and month upon month
have swept with sleet, and chilly rain, and
bowling storm, over the earth, and riveted
their bolts upon the door of natures sep
ulchre when the sun at length begins
to wheel in higher circles through the sky,
and softer winds to breathe over melting
snows-did he ever behold the long hid
den earth at length appear, and soon the
timid grass peep forth, and anon the au-
tumn;l wheat began to paint the field,
and velvet leaflets to burst from purple
buds, throughout the resiving forest: and
then the mellow soil to open its fruitful
bosom to every grain and seed dropped
from the planters hand, buried but to
spring up again, clothed with new, mys-
terious being; and then, as more fervid
suns inhame the air, and softer showers
distil from the clouds, and gentler dews
string their pearls on twg and tendril,
did be ever watch the ripening grain and
fruit, pendant from stalk, &nd vine, and
tree; the meadow, the field, the pasture,
the grove, each after It's kind, arrayed in
myriad-tinted garments, instinct with
circulating Life; sevea millions of counted
leaves on q single tree, each of which is
a system whose exquisite complication
puts to shame the shrewdest cunning of
the human hand every planted seed and
grain, which has been loaned to the earth
compromising its pious usury thirty, sixty,
a hundred fold, all harmoniously adapt
ell to the sustenance of living nature, =
the bread Of a hungry world; here q titled
eornicld, whose yellow blades are nod
ding with the food of man; there an I'M
planted wilderness the great Fathers
arm,-whore he :. who hears the ravens
cry" has cultivated with his own hand,
his merciful crop Of berries, and nuts, and
acorns, and seeds. for the humber families
of animated naturc--the solemn elephant,
the browsing deer, the wild pigeon, whose
futtering caravan darkens the sky; the
merry squirrel who bounds from branch
to branch in the joy of his little lfe;-
has he seen all this, -does he see it every
year and month and day,---does he live,
and move, and breathe and think, in this
atmosphere Of wondcr,- hinselfthe great
est wonder Of all,-wllose smallest fibre
and faintest pulsation il as much mys-
terry as the blazing glories of Orion's belt,
and does he still maintain that a mira
Gle is contrary to experience If he has,
and if he does, then let him go, in the
name Of heaven, and say that It is CON
trarY to experience, that the August
Power which turns the clods of the earth |
into the daily bread of athousand million
souls could feed FIVE thousand in the will |
defness, A
One more suggestion, my friends, and
reheye your patiencs. As a work of /
art, | know few things more PLEASING 70
to the eye, or more capable of atfordinc
L -