Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-01-21

mechanic arts. So, too, we see thought
full and inquisitive Chemistry aiding la
borious Agriculture to make her sterile
deserts bloom and blossom as the rose
Again, star-eyed Astronomy is seen teach
ing adventurous Commerce to guide her
ships across the painless sea, while Com
merce in return, by enabling observa-
tions of the heavens to be made at the
same time in many parts of the globe,
helps Astronomy to the solution of some
of her most difficult and most important
problems. And so Poetry lends her
inspiration to Music, and Music prepares
the uncultivated savage heart for the en-
tering in Of the refining emotions of
Poetry.
Thus, hand in hand, the sister arts
pursue their path of blessing, and MS if
to mark the experimenting love and wis
dom of the All Governing One, this
signal fact presents itself to our observa-
ton: that when any age has produced
and encouraged eminent artists in any
one department there almost always have
been found other artists who have dis
played similar excellence in all the
rest. For confirmation of this state
ment, let us look again on the age of Gre
clan glory. We behold its dawn after
the defeat of Xerxes afforded the allied
States security and peace, and at once it
rose to its meridian splendor, under the
magnificent administration of the Attic
MAN Periclcs. Architecture led the
way, and the splendid structures of Phi
dias sheltered the paintings and sculp-
lures of Praxitiles, Lycippus, Glycon,
Jerks, Appelles, and Parhassius--that
brilliant band of the sons of Genius,
whose works make up the Golden Age
of the arts in Greece.
We may look, also, to the age of Pope
Leo Y. Never before or since has the
vault of art presented such constellation
Of stars of the first magnitude Michael
Angelo, Raphael, Leonade de Vinci, Ii
tian Correggio, Georgione, Parmigiano,
the Caracas, Guescno, Albano, Ian
franc, Dominichino, Guide, and Albert
Durer, are names in the annals Of the
ornamental arts as familiar as household
words. Stretched along the transit Of
an hundred years, they would have CIV
en- to that passing century glory never,
as yet. surpassed. How wonderful that
they should all be circumscribed within
the limits of single Pontifcate of Rome.
naln in ,s,o1a,,.
of Louis XIV, of France, exhibits SINH
lar grouping OF distinguished characters
in connection with the progress of litera-
ture and scientific discovery, and our
own age, no less than the others, is equal
ly noted for the many practical minds
that have advanced the useful arts to
their present wonderful excellence.
These facts illustrate the mutual rela-
tionship and dependency of the industri-
al sisterhood-while they show though,
for the most part, their progress is slow
and toilsomc-yet are there times wien
they advance with astonishing impetuosi-
ty. Generally, the armament of Gent
us presents its stars shining with regulat-
ed and steady lustre, but every now and
then host of dazzling meteors sheds a
sudden and almost supernatural radiance
upon the world beneath.
".
But let us pass to the principles which
seem TO control this industrial action of
our race; and, evidently, the first of
these is-necessity. When our fallen
progenitor was thrust from Paradise,
there was forced upon him the necessity
Of labor: " In the sweat of thy brow
shalt thou eat bread until thou return to
the dust" The wants of life were to be
supplied; and sacred history informs US,
the attention of Adam was at once d.
rected to the tillage of the soil. Agri-
culture. therefore, was the first art which
necessity imposed upon man. And as it
was the first in time, so is it universally
conceded to be first in rank. But sig
aa!!yji important as i: is, the indispcnsii-
bic resource Of human sustenance though
it be, yet it is remarkable that, as sci
ence, it is only within the last fifty or
sixty years that it has been conducted by
any accurately defined systematic rules.
The agriculture Of the four great Mo-
marches of the ancient East-Egypt, As
syria, Babylon, and Persia-except in
one particular, had made but little ad-
vance beyond the Patriarchal ages
That one honorable exception was Irri-
CATION. BY it the naturally sterile por-
tons of Egypt and Persia were made re-
gions Of the most productive fertility.
II was art, not nature, which made an
cient Egypt the granary Of the world.
Celebrated as Greece was for her at
tainments in all the ornamental and most
Of the useful arts, she does not appear
to have reached any similar degree of
advancement in agriculture. At Sparta
the cultivation Of the soil was confined
to slaves, and even Pliny and Aristotle
held the employment to be beneath the
attention of the free-born citizens Of
Athens. Greece, therefore, adds no.
thing Of importance to the annals of this
art.
Among the Romans, however, it was
properly appreciated. In her intervals
of peace, it was the favorite occupation
of her heroes, her statesmen and her poets
But j can give you no better idea Of the
rank among the useful arts given to ag-
riculture by the ancient Romans, than
by asking you to allow your iInaginatioDs
to 60 with me TO classic Italy, and from
the summit of the Apprentices, look down
upon the beautiful valley of the river
Arno, ii-Tuscany. One Of natures love-
Hest scenes will be presented TO your
view. You will behold landscane which