II. Agriculture. The pleasures of agriculture would stand very high in our account, were we to estimate them by the celebration they have received both from poets and philosophers. The following passages from Virgil and Cicero may serve as a specimen : Thrice happy, if his happiness he knows, The country swain, on whom kind heav'n bestows Whom the just earth with easy plenty feeds. His years are past, with every blessing crown'd, Cicero, in the person of the elder Cato, thus speaks I come now to discourse of the O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, Non absunt. VIRG. Georg. lib. 2. pleasures which accompany the labours of the husbandman, and with which I myself am delighted beyond expression. They are pleasures which meet with no obstruction even from old age, and seem to approach nearest to those of true wisdom*. To the same purpose he again speaks a little afterwards. These panegyrics, to be just, must be understood with great limitations, and can never be generally extended to that numerous body of men who are employed in the culture of the earth. There is scarce, perhaps, any condition of life which is attended with more anxiety than that of a common farmer: to him to him a bad year is a * Venio nunc ad voluptates agricolarum, quibus ego. incredibiliter delector; quæ nec ullâ impediuntur senectute, et mihi ad sapientis vitam proximè videntur accedere. Habent enim rationem cum terrâ, quæ nunquam recusat imperium, nec unquam sine usurâ reddit, quod accepit. Quamquam me quidem non fructus modò sed etiam ipsius terræ vis ac natura delectat, Cicero de Senectute, cap. 15. II. Agriculture. The pleasures of agriculture would stand very high in our account, were we to estimate them by the celebration they have received both from poets and philosophers. The following pas sages from Virgil and Cicero may serve as a specimen : Thrice happy, if his happiness he knows, Cicero, in the person of the elder Cato, thus speaks I come now to discourse of the O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, VIRG. Georg. lib. 2. pleasures which accompany the labours of the husbandman, and with which I myself am delighted beyond expression. They are pleasures which meet with no obstruction even from old age, and seem to approach nearest to those of true wisdom*. To the same purpose he again speaks a little afterwards. These panegyrics, to be just, must be understood with great limitations, and can never be generally extended to that numerous body of men who are employed in the culture of the earth. There is scarce, perhaps, any condition of life which is attended with more anxiety than that of a common farmer: to him a bad year is a * Venio nunc ad voluptates agricolarum, quibus ego incredibiliter delector; quæ nec ullâ impediuntur senectute, et mihi ad sapientis vitam proximè videntur accedere. Habent enim rationem cum terrâ, quæ nunquam recusat imperium, nec unquam sine usurâ reddit, quod accepit. Quamquam me quidem non fructus modò sed etiam ipsius terræ vis ac natura delectat, Cicero de Senectute, cap. 15. serious calamity: he is anxious to lay in happily his seed; he is then anxious for seasons favourable to its growth; and, after his fields are become ripe for the harvest, almost every cloud that flies over his head is an object of apprehension. Such high encomiums, therefore, can never be applicable, except in the case of a country gentleman who is not obliged to live on the fruits of his own industry, by whom a barren year is not felt, and who retains no more of his grounds in his own hands than may serve to his convenience or amusement. And even here the happiness is found often to exist merely in contemplation. It was some such form of life which appears to have smitten the imagination of Cowley; and what was the consequence? When he came at length to take possession of his elysium, he met with so rude a reception, that others who indulge themselves in a like prospect, may learn thence to moderate their expectations. "The first night," says he, in a letter to Dr. Sprat, "that I came hither, I ་་ |