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gence for that in agriculture consisted the art of multiplying gold.

VI.

Faunus, king of the Latin aborigines, taught his subjects agriculture: for which he was deified; and feasts, called Faunalia, instituted in honour of him. During the celebration of these feasts, the whole village ceased from work; and the day was considered as such a time for peace and harmony, that even wolves were believed to respect' it; never molesting, on that day, either sheep or goats. A kid or roe-buck 2 was sacrificed; and libations of wine poured upon the victim.

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We are told, that a slave, in the early period of Roman history, having been enfranchised by his master, never failed to reap more corn, upon a small piece of land, which had been bequeathed to him, than any of his neighbours. In consequence of this, they accused him of sorcery, and cited him to appear before the criminal tribunal3. In this emergency, the enfranchised slave took with him his daughter, his ploughs, his harrows, and his oxen; and, showing them to the judges, declared, that if he had been guilty of sorcery, in producing greater crops than his neighbours, the instruments of his sorcery were the instruments lying before them. "Those are my

charms," continued he, " and they are open to any person's examination. The charms I possess beside, I can

1 Hor. lib. xviii. od. 3.

[2 Hor. lib. i. od. 4. Vid. also Tibullus.

3 Plin. lib. xviii. c. 6. Vid. also Scriptores Rei Rusticæ veteres Latini a Gesnero, 4to. 1735. This incident is happily introduced, by De Lille, into his L'homme des Champs, canto ii.

not so readily show: but if you will permit me to use these instruments in my own ground, in the same manner I am accustomed to use them, you may soon see the charms, I allude to, by the drops of perspiration, which will fall from my face." It is needless to observe, that his neighbours received the reward of their envy in the applause their intended victim received from the whole court.

It was not without good reason, that public felicity has been emblemed, sitting on a throne, clothed in purple; with a wand in one hand, and a cornucopia in the other. Agriculture is a science, to which Germany, Russia, France, and Spain, should, therefore, more particularly apply themselves. Wealth, arising from commerce, is illusory; being too tangible to be permanent. Agriculture will probably make the United States of America the first dominion in the world: for it is a science at once favourable to the acquirement of wealth; to a knowledge of Nature; to the constancy of health; to the multiplicity of marriages; and, therefore, to the permanency of population, and the preservation of morals.

VII.

Mrs. Montague, who used to assert, that all the arts and sciences were contained in the first grain of corn, when she held a farm at Sandleford, had it tilled principally by women. They weeded her corn; hoed her turnips; and planted her potatoes. Madame Helvetius was a woman, in some respects, not inferior to Madame Roland. Having been the idol of her husband, whom, in return, she loved with the warmest affection, she became, at his

death, the delight of a numerous circle of friends and acquaintances. Retired at Auteuil, she indulged the native benevolence of her disposition in administering to the wants of animals, and in cultivating plants. One day, walking with Napoleon, then first consul of France, she observed to him, in answer to a question he had proposed to her, "Ah, Monsieur grande Consul! you are little conscious, how much happiness a person may enjoy upon three acres of ground!"

Leopold of Tuscany, too, gave great encouragement to the system of employing women, as well as men, in purposes of husbandry. He multiplied small freeholds; increased the number of life leases; and improved the mutual harmony of landlords and tenants, by introducing the system of giving both an equal advantage in the produce of the soil. This system still prevails; and the farmers, employing only their brothers, sons, sisters, and daughters, the entire vale of Arno is covered with beauty, and with industry, worthy the admiration of patriarchs.

Chateaubriand, in his Treatise on the Genius of Christianity, relates, that in the Jesuit establishment at Lorette, in Paraguay, lands were divided into portions; and a portion allotted to every family. Added to which, there was a field, cultivated in common, which they called the land" in God's possession." This field was set apart for the purpose of securing the establishment from the consequences of bad years: and for the support of widows, orphans, and infirm persons. The picture of this primitive society, as exhibited by Chateaubriand, excites a desire to form an establishment of a similar nature, in one of the back settlements of America.

But of all the compliments paid to agriculture, that conferred by Ganictor, king of Euboea, seems to be the greatest. This monarch, says Plutarch, invited all the most celebrated heroes and poets to Chalcis, in order to celebrate his father's funeral games. At this ceremony Homer and Hesiod being present, and contending for the tripos, at the conclusion of their trial of skill, Ganictor gave the palm of victory to Hesiod:-observing, that the poet, who celebrated peace, by teaching the art of husbandry, deserved the crown much more worthily, than the one, whose muse tended to excite men's admiration, by deeds of blood.

VIII.

And here let us commemorate an instance, related by Young, in his Annals of Agriculture. A spot of ground was appropriated in Kew Gardents to the amusement of George, Prince of Wales, and Frederick, Duke of York. This spot they sowed with wheat, which they weeded, reaped, and harvested themselves:—they afterwards thrashed out the corn, and winnowed it. Then they ground it in a hand-mill; separated the flour from the bran; and superintended its being made into bread. When it was baked, the king and queen partook of the loaf, and highly relished the repast.

The following anecdote is related by Helen Maria Williams. As it furnishes a beautiful picture of an admirable man, the authoress shall have the satisfaction of relating it in her own language. "A Polish regiment, forming part of the advanced guard of the Russian army, after expelling the French from Troyes, marched upon Fontainbleau. The troops were foraging in a neighbouring

village, and were about to commit disorders, which would have caused considerable loss to the proprietors, without benefit to themselves:-such as piercing the banks, or forcing the sluices of some fish-ponds. While they were thus employed, and their officers looking on, they were astonished to hear the word of command, bidding them to cease, pronounced in their own language by a person in the dress of the upper class of peasants. They ceased their attempts at further spoliation, and drew near the stranger. He represented to the troops the useless mischief, they were about to commit, and ordered them to withdraw. The officers coming up, were lectured in their turn, and heard, with some astonishment, the laws of predatory warfare explained to them. • When I had a command in the army of which your regiment is a part, I punished very severely such acts, as you seem to authorize by your presence: and it is not on those soldiers, but on you, that punishment would have fallen.' To be thus tutored by a French farmer, in their own lạnguage, in such circumstances, and in such terms, was almost past endurance. They beheld the peasants, at the same time, taking off their hats, and surrounding the speaker, as if to protect him, in case of violence: while the oldest among their own soldiers, anxiously gazing on the features of the stranger, were seized with a kind of involuntary trembling. Conjured more peremptorily, to disclose his quality and his name, the peasant, drawing his hand across his eyes, to wipe off a starting tear, exclaimed, with a half stifled voice, I am Kosciusco!' The movement was electric; the soldiers threw down their arms; and, falling prostrate on the ground, according to the custom of their country, covered their heads with

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