rer than all his fancy painted,
to whose light the Gentiles shall yet come, and kings to the brightness
of its rising. The philosopher's stone has never been found which should
transmute all metals to gold; but gold itself is worthless in the
presence of such truths as philosophy reveals. All the way through, no
science has been pushed to barren results. A thousand errors have
branched off from the central truth, and have sometimes been mistaken
for it; a thousand false steps have been made for one in the right
direction; yet the truth is central and indivisible, and men have
pressed on steadily to reach it. Counterfeits do not annihilate the pure
coin. Pretenders do not destroy faith in the rightful prince. Even
failures lead the way to success. Honest, wise, persevering research has
ever been rewarded in full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and
running over. And it is not to be supposed that the one science of the
earth vaster and nobler than all others, the science that ministers most
directly to man's life, shall be the one science to baffle his research
and yield him meagre returns. We do not know what wealth the earth holds
in store for us, and it is our shame and misery that we so little
strive to know, so little care to seek. With an ignorance for which our
rich experience leaves us no excuse, we doggedly assume that we have
attained the ultimatum. The earth is to us but an immense pippin covered
all over with the arrogant label, "Seek-no-further."

If farmers choose to accept this label as their motto, they should also
accept the consequences without complaint. If they choose to live in a
rut, they must not expect to breathe the air which they would find on a
hill. Many readers will remember a passage at arms that occurred in the
legislative assembly of one of our New-England States. A clergyman,
advocating a bill which was to help a certain class of young men in
obtaining education, referred to several persons who had by assistance
become men of note, but who without it would have remained "only
farmers." Another member immediately took umbrage, avowed himself to be
a farmer, and assured the assembly that he should not vote for a bill
which was to educate young men to sneer at him! The bill
failed,--whether from constitutional weakness or from this death-blow we
are not informed, but are left to infer the latter. The repartee was
very good as a repartee, and a respectable degree of Parliamentary skill