671 



tension, to supply not only the wants and conveniences of man, but to 

 meet the large demands of taste, both voluptuous and refined. Genius 

 and talent were alike subsidized — whilst inventions, discovery and im- 

 provements were notunfrequently rewarded with the contents of public 

 treasuries, to be replenished again by cruel exactions from the agricul- 

 tural classes. When we scan with an understanding eye the civilization 

 of the Roman world, we are compelled to correct a popular error. They 

 could imitate, but not invent. They could furnish hand-pattern arti- 

 sans, but borrowed from Greece, from Egypt and Assyria, the models 

 and designs, and imported their principal architects. With few individ- 

 ual exceptions, they were neither a literary nor a scientific people. 

 They were servile copyists from others. Even their system of jurispru- 

 dence, down to the Emperors, was derived from Greece, and compiled 

 by an Ephesian. Their refinements were ostentatious, their pleasures 

 were sensual and venal, their amusements were brutal, their genius was 

 for war, and their piincipal progress was in human slaughter. 



Pardon this digression. It has been wrung from me by reading 

 upon their gilded palaces, their majestic temples, their triumphal columns, 

 and their 80,000 seated amphitheaters, the thrilling record of blood 

 and famine in subject provinces. Why should it be deemed incredible 

 then, that the Etrurian plow of Cincinnatus, composed of a forked 

 stick, and harnessed by thongs of raw-hide to the horns of his oxen, 

 should have continued the Roman plow for twenty centuries ? Why 

 should their uncouth reaping hook, with its still more crooked loft hand 

 accompaniment, have been exchanged for an improved utensil ? Why 

 should agriculturists have taken delight in extended fields of waving 

 grain, in sleek, well fed flocks and herds, or in spacious barns and gran- 

 aries ? Such possessions would have proved the certain signal for ra- 

 pine and plunder, for personal violence, and perchance for murder. No ! 

 their only shield was apparent destitution ! Their only granaries were 

 hidden excavations in the earth, whilst the forest or mountain steppes 

 furnished a herding place for their cattle. The imperial fax, ruinous in 

 itself, was generally doubled by the rapacity of provincial governors, 

 with their numerous officials. 



With slight modifications, agriculture has labored under like difficul- 

 ties, the world over, until modern times. Wherever the relation of lord 

 and vassals exist, whether as serfs of the crown or by any of the forms 



