BRIEF SKETCH OF JOHN FARMER.
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��years old ; and secondly, that no labor oi" his, of whatever kind it was, could ever be pronounced harmful on the one hand, nor unprofitable and unnecessary on the other.
Who can estimate the amount of work done with hands that is abso- lutely injurious as well as unnecessary to human well-being ? If the time and muscular labor employed in pro- ducing, transporting, and vending in- toxicating drinks and tobacco, includ- ing all the furniture and other appoint- ments absolutely necessary to the business ; and if every working man, woman, and child abstained wholly from the use of those articles as con- scientiously as did Mr. Farmer, that one change alone would so revolution- ize our whole industrial system as that six hours' labor a day would give every class a better living, in this country even, than it ever yet has had, or can expect to have while the present order and arrangement shall last.
That John Farmer was born in the year 17S9, on the twelfth of June, and died August thirteenth, 183 8, proves the first fact already stated concerning him. And the nature and amount of work he accomplished in those brief working years, will sub- stantiate the other. Indeed, a men- tion of only a part of it, and that wholly of the brain and pen, will more than suffice.
For the following catalogue of Mr. Farmer's works I am indebted to the Memorial, just published of him by Rev. John LeBosquet, who was once his pupil, and remembers him in his works and ways with enthusiastic de- light, now, after his body has slept in the grave almost half a centurv :
" Historical Sketch of Billerica, Mass. ; Historical Sketch of Amherst, N. H. ; A Topographical and Histori- cal Description of the County of Hills- borough, N. H. ; An Ecclesiastical Register of New Hampshire, contain- ing a Succinct Account of the Different Religious Denominations — their Ori- gin, Progress, and Numbers in 1821,
��with a Catalogue of the Ministers of the Several Churches, from 1638 to 1 821; The New Military Guide, a Compilation of Rules and Regula- tions for the Use of the Militia ; A Gazetteer of New Hampshire, in con- junction with Hon. Jacob B. Moore; Memoir of the Penacook Indians ; Catechism of the History of New Hampshire, for Schools and Families ; The Concord Directory for 1830 [first ever published] ; Pastors, Deacons, and Members of the the first Congre- gational Church in Concord, N. H., from November, 1 730, to November, 1830; An Edition of Mason on Self- Knowledge, with Questions ; An Edi- tion of the Constitution of New Hampshire, with Questions, for Acad- emies and Schools ; A New Edition of Belknap's History of New-Hamp- shire, with various corrections and illustrations of the first and second volumes of Belknap, with additional facts and notices of persons and events ; Seventeen volumes of the New Hampshire Annual Register and United States Calendar ; Three vol- umes of Collections, Historical and Miscellaneous, in connection with J. B. Moore ; Papers in the second and third series of the Massachusetts His- torical Collections ; Papers in five volumes of Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society ; and the following papers in the American Quarterly Register : Sketches of the first Graduates of Dartmouth College, from 1 771 to 1783; List of the Con- gregational and Presbyterian Minis- ters of New Hampshire, from its first settlement to 1814 ; List of the Gradu- ates of all the Colleges of New Eng- land, containing about nineteen thou- sand names ; List of eight hundred and forty deceased Ministers, who graduated at Harvard College, from 1642 to 1826, together with their ages, dates of graduation, and decease ; Memoirs of Ministers who graduated at Plarvard College to 1657; Genea- logical Register of the First Settlers of New England, a work of immense labor, and intended to be carried out
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