Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1858-11-27
No. 80

pensate for it. An uudevout astronomer is
mad, exclaimed a wise man. An undevout farm
er Is monster, we exclam. What can the
husbandman receive his food direct from Heaven
ITS rains, and dews and sunshine its smile
over him in the blue and spangled vault-sun
and moon and star-litl all around him in the
wayy grass and gran-the many tinted flowers
IN the voices of the wind and tho bending trees,
underneath him, in the prolific fresh-turned soil,
ana stlll be monster. out of tune with outer and
inner Naturel
- Who lives so far from temptation Who
lives so nigh to his Creator? enwrapped all round
about with his arms! fed from his dazzling, muni-
hcent hand tie sleeps between the leaves of
Gods pictured bOOk-the Universe.
- He loved husbandry, is the encomium that
inspiration pays to of the best Kings of Israeli
and who had one of the longest and most prosper
Gus of reigns. 'Uzziah the King saws the
sacred writer, digged many wells, for he had
much cattle; husbandmen also, and vine-dressers
IN the mountains and in Carmel, for he loved hus-
bandry.' Ii this could have been said of his sue
cessUrs, the jews had not been pealed and scat
tered, as at this day, among the nations. As
long as 1t can be said Of the sovereigns of these
States, they love husbandry,' the Republic is
safe. Small farms grow true patriots. The
wealth OF the Republic must be a common wealth,
1t is the nature of power to seek to increase itself
W hen monarchs increase in power, it is in bald
words the growth of tyranny. Not so with the
King farmer. His tyranny is over barrenness.
He smites, and 10 the sterile earth groans but
1t is with abundance. He brings his enemies to
the taggOt and the stake. But they are the thorn.
the thistle and the briar He overruns and sub
dues the territories of his foes but they are the
swamp, the ZEN and the qUagmire He plows up
the very foundations of the stroDgholds of his de-
strOyers ; but they were the deadly malaria the
stinging insect, and the fanged and poisonous
reptile. The Earth is his slave, but it is the sla-
very of love- for it buds and blossoms before him,
and its trees clap their hands Of JOY of him. He
chains his servants to do his will but they are
the elements they are the huge and willing OK,
and majestic horse impatient to do his bidding
and champing for the word that bids them go
When the Monarch Farmer raises himself on high
and stretches his scepter abroad, cities spring up
under its shadow. The sound of the spindle, the
loom and the anvil, and the ponderous foundry
and mill are heard. The hum Of the industries Of
multitudes come up like the noise of many waters;
white winged ships fly over the unstable main
men cast aside their hides and fig leaves, and are
clothed In imperial garments; and women are
arrayed in fabrics as fine gossamer and many
tinted as the sunset cloud. Penury, Pestilenee
and Famine, he keeps bound in his prison house.
Labor stands in the door of his magazines and in
his stalwart hand he holds the scales of human
life, and weighs out the supplies of Trade, and
Art, and Armies of School, and Church, and
State Food and Raiment Abundance and Luxu-
ry. tie deals out the progress of Human kind.
THF FARMER IS THE MONARCH OF MEN.
" POSITION uI.-NO MARKET, No FARM, NO ENLIGHr-
ENNENT.
{" IF the farm be the body, the market is the
head and the hands and the feet of civilization.
The husbandman has gathered his abundant crop.
He loads it into his wagon he harnesses his hor-
ses; he mounts the seat; the rens are in his
hand he is readp to snap his whip. But there
is no market; there is no place for him to go.
Slowly he dlsmounts, and relapses back into bar
barism. In two generations his descendants
would be burrOwing in wigwams. There must be
the all-demanding market; and there the husband
man sells his abundance and first Of all, in re-
turn, he buys intelligence. His first trade is for
knowledge-the newspaper-the book Without
them, farming is merely an invention to keep
from starving to death Without the influence
of books, the country school, science, knowledge,
in the farmhouse, the husbandman is nothing
more than better fed and clothed and housed
savage-beast.
- | had rather far be a wild Indian at once,
and rove uncontrolled amid Natures own recesses,
than such thing-tO turn my farm into human
piggery. knowledge must advance like conquer
ing army among farmers if it halts it falters and
is conquered. The whole fabric of human society
rests upon them they must be wise men, or the
whole structure will tumble. Productive labor
must be intelligent, or the democratic fabric of
our Government goes down. No skill can save it.
Intelligent productive labor is beyond all compari-
son the omnipotent power to found and support
the State
Town and country, market and farm. They aSe
sometimes Jealous of each other. Particularly is
the country apt to be jealous Of the town. But
were there no town, the country would be place
simply exist in-as the grizzly lives in his cave,
or the gopher burrows in his hole. And were
there no country filled with industrious husband
men, the hum Of the city would cease. The wall
Of the owl and the coyote would be heard instead,
within its topping walls, and the bat and the
tarantula would dwell there.