Excerpt from Early Gleanings and Random Recollections of the Town of Corinth, Main, From 1792 to 1883 In the early ages of mankind, the products of the earth were spontaneous; man had little to do. but eat, drink, and be happy. If our associations are reliable, the life of our race began in a climate producing all that was needful for animal sustenance without mans care. Yet, in that position, man never rose, - he lived in a barbarous state, browsing in the primitive pastures of animal life. Much like the animal he lived and slept; and sleeping, sometimes dreaming; "but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; he is faint, and his soul hath appetite." Then began the original purposes of mans nature; then commenced the stir of human faculties. The breadth of his nature began to work; he feels the stir of impassioned endeavor; - he begins to think - to philosophize - he sees grand fields of opportunity, and hears the command, till those acres, and soon perceives that by applying his own intelligence Lo his work, he improves himself. Thus the earth became the educator of her children. This wonderful earth was made for the accommodation of our race, not only for mans outward growth, exhibition, exposure, out-of-door contact, but the interior life, looking eternitywise. Every child born into the world is fed spontaneously at first. But this is not to be through life; growing children soon arrive at manhood, and are commanded to toil and earn a living. The ages move on, and a grand progressive work comes upon the stage of life. In our worlds schools there are no vacations, her doors are never closed, and her schools are being kept forever, each generation only steps up to a higher class. In this worlds school our early settlers first learned their lessons and learned them well, enabling them to go out into the broad, active world, with an outfit of powers furnished by their Maker, and soon became enthusiastic workers - with manly courage our fathers sought the forest, flinging wide open their doors, that health might enter at morn, meridian, evening and midnight, giving her such welcome that she forgot the home of city life, and became the sojourner of the wilds of our forests. Here all were lovers and worshipers; and that they might love all things wisely, they gave to all things the pure, deep joy of their intercommunion with nature. In our Random Recollections, we go back to the early -and fresh days of young life, the springtide of our Townships joyous existence as we saw it in its struggling infancy, so with memory's eye we see it to-day, joyous and happy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.