gigantic, uneffeminated by luxury, glitter, and sloth--will rise up, and put all soulless artificialities to shame; and already mighty are the symptoms of such a change manifested, in an array of names that might be adduced. But I must not be led farther away by this seducing topic. I found this countryman was a member of our Artisans’ Library, and every Saturday evening he walked over to the town to exchange his books. I asked him whether reading did not make him less satisfied with his daily work; his answer deserves universal attention:--“Before he read, his work was weary to him; for, in the solitary fields, an empty head measured the time out tediously, to double its length; but, now, no place was so sweet as the solitary fields: he had always something pleasant floating across his mind; and the labour was delightful, and the day only too short.” Seeing his ardent attachment to the country, I sent him the last edition of “The Book of the Seasons;” and I must here give a _verbatim et literatim_ extract from the note in which he acknowledged its receipt, because it not only contains an experimental proof of the falsity of a common alarm on the subject of popular education, but shews at what a little cost much happiness may be conveyed to a poor man:--“Believe me, dear sir, this kind act has made an impression on my heart that time will not easily erase. There are none of your works, in my opinion, more valuable than this. The study of nature is not only the most delightful, but the most elevating. This will be true in _every station_ of life. But how much more ought the _poor man_ to prize this study! which if prized and pursued as it ought, will enable him to bear, with patient resignation and cheerfulness, the _lot_ by providence assigned him. O sir! I pity the working man who possesses not a _taste_ for reading. ’Tis true, it may sometimes lead him to neglect the other more important duties of his station; but his better and more enlightened judgment will soon correct itself in this particular, and will enable him, while he steadily and diligently pursues his private studies, and participates in intellectual enjoyment, to prize, as he ought, his _character as a man_ in every relative duty of life.” What a nation would this be, filled with a peasantry holding such views, and possessing such a consequent character as this!