ENGLISH COUNTRY LIFE. INTRODUCTION. DR. KITCHENER says, in the profundity of his wisdom, that man is a cooking animal. Others, less learned in gastronomic lore, maintain with equal truth, that man is by nature a tiger; and the philosophers say cogito ergo sum. But, disregarding all the theories and all the piles of doctrines and systems, from Pythagoras to Jeremy Bentham, which have failed hitherto in arriving at the truth, it is easier to demonstrate, that his proper dwellingplace is not in the crowded city nor on the Exchange "where men the most do congregate" -nor amid the din, the smoke, and the bustle of the workshop, the mill or the factory, the B sound of the hammer and the anvil, the click of the power loom, the stroke of the engine beam, the heat of the furnace and the forge, or the fearful whirl of the wheel and the spindle; nor amid devouring speculations and heart-burning and heart-withering excitements;—but—in the country: - and that his true occupation is the cultivation of the earth, for, "God made the country, and man the town." It Bronterre affirms, that of all human occupations agriculture is not only the most essential to man's existence, but also the most conducive to his health, his peace, his innocence, his happiness. Agriculture, he says, is the first and most important of all pursuits of industry. produces and reproduces not only the food consumed by all employed upon the land, during the process both of cultivation and vegetation, but also the food of every other order of persons, whatever their employment or station in society. Bronterre is right. It is the basis of all other occupations, and not only supplies every description of food, but the raw materials for clothing-wool, flax, hides, and the rest. Without agriculture, all manufactures, all commercial enterprise would stand still, and the whole frame-work of society fall in pieces. Bron terre is right. Yes, Agriculture, Diana-like, walks smiling over this glorious land, blessing all with the choicest of blessings. Her brow is bound with ears of golden grain; the sweetest smiles play upon her lips; her eyes beam with intelligence and beauty; in the one hand she holds the reaping hook-in the other the horn of plenty. Nor is she unattended. She has many handmaidens - botany, zoology, chemistry, geology, mechanics; and around her dance a sylph-like band, crowned with chaplets of wild-flowers-peace, health, hilarity, simplicity, goodness, innocence. But there abound other associations, and means of enjoyment or of instruction connected with agriculture beyond the mere provision of the daily necessaries for all classes of society. In the due appreciation and the just application of these advantages, there is also much good -an expansion of right feelings, a developement of generous impulses, and an enlargement of the mind and of the heart. When the persecuted band of French Protestants on their way to Geneva, the asylum of the oppressed from all countries, reached the summit of the Jura, and saw the lake and the B 2 |