Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-08-31

farming population of the country as the
most moral and religious of any, yet if we
look at them critically we shall find that
their piety is of negative, rather than a
positive character. They are men in the
iirst place who have very few temptations,
either from without or within There are
no professional tempters around them to
lure them into the more seductive paths of
sin. The woman whose steps take hold on
bell does not pass their doors the gam.
bier spreads no snares for them no gilded
palace invites them to Intoxicating music
and intoxicating draughts they are not
maddened by ambition and thev have no
vanity that leads them to degrading and
ruihons display. If they are little assailed
| ron without, they are not moved toward
vice from within. The fact that their vital
energies are all expended upon labor re-.
.eVes them from the motives of termination
Men whose muscle are overworked have
no vitality to cxpend upon vices. The devil
cannot make much out of n man who 10 Lo,I,
urea ana sleepy If We inquire of the min
S'orS VINO have charge of rural parishes
they will usually tell us that an audience of
mechanics is better than an audience Of
farmers, and that the miscellaneous audience
oil city is better than either. I, is imnoe.
siblc for men who have devoted every bod;.
y energy they possess to hand labor dnrinr
the working hours of six days. to on 20
church aud keep brightly awake on the
seventh. Country ministers will also admit
that they have in their parishes less helm in
social and conference meetings than the pas
tors OF city parishes, and that no great
movements of benevolence ever originate in
or are carried on by, rural churches.
AS matter Of course, life cannot have
much dignity or much that is characteristics
ally human in it unless it be based upon ac-
i've intellectually, genuine sensiblity a
Development of the finer affections, and posi-
tive Christian virtue. When man is n
man, he never "tucks in grub" When
man lies down for rest and sleep he does not
'go 10 rooSt" To man marriage is some.
thing more than ''hiching on" and dirty
shirt is good deal more of q "surprisc~ to
q mans back than q clean one. There is
no doubt about the fact that life whose
whoLe energies are expended in hard bodily
Iaoor IS such life as God never intended
man should live. do not wonder that men
tly from this life and gather into the larrer
villages and cities, to get some employment
which will leave them leasure for living
Life was intended to be so adjusted that
the body should be the servant of the soul.
and always subordinate to the soul 1t was
| never meant by the Creator that the soul
should always be subordinate to the body.
| am perfectly aware that / am not re-
vealing pleasant truths. We are very much
in the habit of clarifying rural life, and
praising the intelligence and virtue of rural
populations and if they believe us, they
canDot receive what | write upon this sub
ject with pleasure. But the question which
interests these people most is not whether
they are true. Is the philosophy sound
Are the facts as they are represented 10 be
Does severe and constant tax upon the
muscular system repress mental development
and tend to make life hard and homely and
unattractive Is this the kind of life gene.
rally which the American farmer leads Is
not the American, generally, man who
has sacrificed q free and full mental devel.
opment, and all his finer sensibilities and
affections, and q generous and genial family
and social life, and the dignities and taste.
ful proprieties of well appointed home, to
the support of his muscles | am aware
that there are instances of better life than
this among the farmers and should not have
written this article if those instances had
not taught me that this everlasting devo-
ton to labor is unnecessary. There are
farmers who prosper in their calling, and do
not become stolid There are farmers who
are gentemen-men of intelligence
homes are the abode of refinement whose
watchword is improvement, and whose aim
and mission is to elevate their calling. If
there be man on the earth whom / hon
or it is a farmer who has broken away from
his slavery to labor, ard applied his mind
to his soil.
Mind must be the emancipation of the
farmer. Science, intelligence, machinery
these must liberate the white bondman of
the soil from his long slavery. When l
look back and see what has been done for
the farmer within my brief memory, am
full Of hope for the future. The plough,
under the hand of science, is become a new
instrument. The horse now hoes the corn,
digs the potatoes, mowS the grass, rakes
the hay, reaps the wheat and threshes and
WlunUNS IL uuI C'Clg 10Y hAdo nv" hlHNA-
inery to the farmers stock, to superCede
the clumsy implements which once bound
him to his hard and never-ending toll,
When farmer begins to use machinery and
to study the processes Of other men, and TO
apply his mind for farming so far as he can
make it take the place of muscle, then he
Eliminates his calling with new light, and
lifts himself into the dignity of a man. If
mind once gets the upper hand, it will serve
itself and see that the body is properly cared
for. Intelligent farming is dgnifed living.
For farmer who reads and thinks, aud
studies and applies, Nature will open the
storohouse Of her secrets, and point the way
to life full of dignity and beauty, and
grateful and improbable leisure.
Valuable Thoughts and Suggestions.
| Our COMMON SCHOOLS Tho common