Much injury has been done to the cause of agriculture by sanguine speculations, which have only led to expense and disappointments; but all works on agriculture are not of that character; nor should it be forgotten that theory is the parent of practical knowledge, and that the very systems which farmers themselves adopt, were originally founded upon those theories which they so much affect to despise.  Neither can it be denied that systems grounded upon theory alone, unsupported by experiment, are properly viewed with distrust; for the most plausible reasoning upon the operations of nature, without accompanying proof deduced from facts, may lead to a wrong conclusion, and it is often difficult to separate that which is really useful, from that which is merely visionary....  Prudence, therefore, dictates the necessity of caution; but ignorance is opposed to every change, from the mere want of judgment to discriminate between that which is purely speculative, and that which rests upon a more solid foundation.

* * * * *

=_Robert Walsh, 1784-1859._= (Manual, p. 504.)

From “Didactics, Social, Literary, &c.”

=_153._= FALSE SYMPATHY WITH CRIMINALS.

Whatever the impulse to guilt, some suppression or aberration of the reason may ever be alleged and admitted.  In this mode, however, sentimentalists might argue or whine away the whole body of crimes and punishments.  It is the duty of every true friend of humanity and order, to protest against perverted sensibilities or sophistical refinements, which find warrant or apology for depraved appetites,—­for the worst distemperature of the mind, and the most fatal catastrophes,—­in natural propension, and unrestrained feeling.  Spurious sympathy is a more prolific evil than sanguinary rigor, useless and pernicious as the latter is, in our humble opinion.  Public executions do more harm than good,—­but are not worse than morbid public commiseration and entreaty for criminals, to whom the real justice of the law has been applied, after fair and merciful trial....

Many of the worst criminals, who, in different ages and countries, have justly suffered ignominious death on the wheel, the block, or the gallows, were men of “extraordinary character,” of singular acuteness, of the most decided spirit.  To acknowledge this fact is not to applaud their conduct, or admire their general ultimate character....

We have constantly remembered what we early read in the works of Mr. Burke, that it is the propensity of degenerate minds to admire or worship splendid wickedness; that, with too many persons, the ideas of justice and morality are fairly conquered and overpowered by guilt when it is grown gigantic, and happens to be associated with the lustre of genius, the glare of fashion, or the robes of power.  Against this species of degeneracy or illusion it has been our uniform endeavor to guard ourselves, and our conscientious