Elizabeth-Town gazette. [volume] (Elizabeth-Town, N.J.) 1818-1821, 1820-02-22
AGRICULTURAL.


The DAYS Of the Patriarchs. those prime.
val days Of purify and peace, when Abra.
ham and Lot settled The first dispute a.
bout property which occurs IN human an.
nails. in manner which reflects eternal
lustre upon the names OF those primitive
saints and fathers of mankind; in those
days Of rnrai aud pastoral simplicity, be-
tore wars had brutaIized. OF commerce cor
rupted The human heart, the filler OF the
soil held The first, and indeed The only
grade 10 the solar sys.em: he was 10 iaci
the Alpha and Omega Of community.
sThe first fresh dawn then wak'd the glsdden'd
OF uncorrupted man, nor blush'd to see
The sIuggard sleep beneath its sacred beam
For their light slunabers gently fund away;
And up they rose. as vigorous as the sun,
Or to the culture Of the willing glebe,
Or TO the cheerful tendence Of the flock
Meantime the song went round and dance and
sport.
Wisdom and friendly talk successive, stole
Their hours away while in the rosy vale,
Love breat'd his infant signs, from anguish free,
And fun repete with bliss; save the sweet pain,
That inly thrilling but exalts it more.
Nor yet injurious act, nor surly deed,
Was known among those happy sons of heaven;
For reason and beneyoence were law"
10 after ages, the scene was greatly
changed. The products Of the earth be-
coming the objects OF commerce and spec
ulation, class OF men arose, who became
The active agents of this new commercial!
aud specializing system. These soon learn
ed TO forget, in the pride of commercial
wealth and spIendor, that their riches
flowed from the earth and from the labors
of the husbandman; that bis toll produced
the commodities which they merely ex
changed for others or for the precious me-
ltals The delicate hands that were enga-
eed in traffick, and cnnsegsaas With silver
aud gold, and rich fleeces, and fine linens.
land soft silks, and sweet spices, and all
1.-THE numerous Iuxuriant products of orien-
Ital chimes, not only shrunk from that ma
|nual labor which the culture of the earth
requires, but contracted an habitnai con
tempt for those who pursued il. Thus We
account for the first degradation to which
the Agriculturalist or Plough Boy Of an
liiquity was subjected, and which has ever
lsince, through ages Of moral and political
revolution, been more or less attached to
| them.
Among the ancient Romans, it is true,
Ihusbandry bad its share Of favor. There
were, at least, two ages in Roman history
the age in which Cincinnatus planted,
and that in which Virgil sung-which
gave birth to no small degree of veneration
for the plough. 1t was then the sweet
lpoet Of the seasons has told us
-----The sacred plough employed
The kings and awful fathers of mankind
And some, with whom compared, your insect
tribes,
Are but the beings Of summers day,
Have held the scale Of empire, rul'd the storm
OF mighty war then with unwearied hand,
Disdsining little delicaces, seiz'd
The plough, aud greatly independent liv'd.
10 more modern times, alier the Cloths
aud Vandals had destroyed the Roman
Empire; and what is called modern Eu-
rope, 10 political sense, arose out Of the
chaos Of barbarian rule the feudal system
contributed to the degradation Of the hus-
bandman. All Europe at this time exbi-
bited little less than unfeeling task masters
on the one hand, and degraded, oppressed
and submissive slaves, on the other. But
The feudal system has long been tottering,
and falling by degrees; and the tiIIer OF
The earth reclaiming and enjoying, in the
progress of this moral and political revoIu.
ton, the rights and dignity Of his condi-
non. The same spirit of commerce, aid
ed by the influence Of the arts 10 general.
which, in primeval times, spurued the no.
nest toll OF the husbandman, has in modern
Europe contributed to relieve him IN some
measure from the chains of feudal vassaI-
age. Even here, 10 America, under the
influence of social institutions, almost as
Tree as the air we breathe, SO predominant,
at one time, had become the spirit Of lux.
ury and pride, the result Of unexampled
commercial prosperity that thousands were
led to look upon the plough and the loom
as implements deno,ing the inferior condi.
ton Of those who lived by them. Ii is
not because we love commerce less. bnt
that we love agriculture more, thatwe wish
to see the false pride Of the one discarded,
and the native dignity of the other main
tanned. And thanks be to heaven, the era
is commencing when we shall behold this
consummation SO devoutly 10 be wished by
every patriot and lover Of mankind, who
breatbes the air Of ourfree and happy coun-
try Plough Boy.