Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-11-06

of the Rural Netg Yorker, under the
title of the "Relative Intelligence of
Farmers" in which the writer sue
cessfully undertook to defend farmers
from the unjust impntation of igno-
rance and lack of intelligence which
is sometimes cast upon them by those
who claim for themselves high posi-
tion among what they are pleased to
call the "cultured classes" In the
brief editorial paragraph in which
the attention of our readers was di-
rected to the article, while We strong
ly seconded the position Of the Rural,
we said, "farmers should read more,
study more, think more, and in every
possible way add to their knowledge
of the business in which they are en-
gagged :" and now we want to gener-
alize this proposition and make some
practical suggestions "a TO how the
advice contained in it-and which
we are sure is good" may be best
acted upon. acknowledge is power"
and this mnst be understood in an
unlimited and uncircumscribed sense.
1t is true that other things being
equal, the man who achieves the most
marked success in any one of life's
varied callings is he who has the
most intimate, thorough and com
plete knowledge and understanding
of all that pertains to that calling,
but it is equally true that of any Civ
en- number of men having an equal
understanding of, and equal success
in, any one business or profession,
the one who adds to his technical or
professional knowledge the largest
degree of general information and
culture, will be the acknowledged
leader, and have the most "power"
as n man and citizen. Ncighboring
farmers may be equally we'll verscd
in all knowledge thats pertains TO
their noble calling, and equally sue
cessful in the practical application of
that knowledge, and yet the one
among them who will be the most in
tiuential and prominent, who, in 9th
er words, will have the most power
as q man and citizen in the commu.
nifty in which he lives, will be the one
who adds to his professional knowl.
edge the greatest amount of general
information, and the highest degree
Of mental culture. This being true
and we are only rc-annunciatingtr truths
as old as time, and as oft-repeated as
the years-the practical suggestions
we wish to make for the benefit of
the younger members of our agricul-
tural community relate to methods
Of obtaining the desired knowledge.
OF these none is more patent than
the proper use Of proper books, and
our thoughts have been turned in
this direction by noticing an adyer-
tisement headed, "2j books for
$500" in n stray number of H1rpcr's
Magazine which happened to find its
way to our table. "Of making books
there is no end" is an assertion which
has much greater force now than
when it was first penned and -
of all sorts, good, bad and indif1SNj
are easily within the reach of all who
earnestly desire them. The adver-
tisement of which we speak, (for the
details of which we refer all who are
interested to the advertising pages of
November Hdrper's), }, is a list of more
than one hundred and twenty FIVE
books-all good, there is not bad
or indifferent book in the whole coll
lection--including history, biography,
belles-letters, fiction, finance, domes-
tic science and miscellany r any
twenty-five of which will be sent by
mail, free of postage, to any address
in the United States, for five dollars.
OF course, these books are small, and
in cheap form-paper covers and so
on-but when we state that the list
of authors embraces the names of
those who stand in the first ranks, as
Thackeray, Macaulay, Browning,