260 Transactions of the 



corded to the pursuit of agriculture. The organization of the national 

 intellect is as complete, and far more rational, than that of China. That 

 Government may be considered as having builded '•'better than it 

 knew," which discriminated in favor of the agriculturists in respect to 

 educational privileges, for these classes are necessarily the most averse 

 to the changes in government. Political disturbances and agitations, 

 like war, are a constant threat to the prosperity of the farmer, and to 

 him, sooner than the representative of any other class, may new ideas 

 be intrusted with safety to the nation. 



Japan gives us the highest example of national thrift, if the density 

 of population in proportion to extent and original excellence of ter- 

 ritory, is the test. The surface is broken by ranges of mountains, 

 the coasts by bays and inlets, which render navigation dangerous, and 

 the variations of temperature are excessive. Yet she feeds, clothes, 

 shelters, and instructs a larger population than that of Great Britain. 

 The perfection of culture which has enabled her to accomplish this, un- 

 assisted by foreign commerce, must be studied in detail to be understood. 

 She has done it main I}' by the most wonderful economy of fertilizing 

 materials, and the perservation of her forests. 



RURAL LIFE IN GREECE. 



In that charming book which has woven the facts of a nation's life 

 into a prose poem, President Felton says: " If the Greeks were pre- 

 eminently a nation of poets and artists, they were no less preeminently 

 a nation of farmers." Here for the first time we find the rural home. 

 The pictures which Homer gives us of the scenes of rustic toil are 

 fresh and enchanting as those in the pages of Whittier. Nor were the 

 Hellenes unlike our New England forefathers in the virtues of thrift, 

 and temperance, their proverbial philosophy, the wit which goes "like 

 bullet to its mark," or weather wisdom. Like the American Indian, 

 they knew the time of day by the turning of the leaves and the open- 

 ing and shutting of flowers. The charm of Homer to the English mind 

 is in the familiarity of scenes which are depicted in his immortal lines. 

 The Greek mind absorbed beauty as the Greek body took in health, and 

 wholeness (another word for holiness) from the earth it loved. "The 

 love of rural life was one of the deepest passions of the Grecian heart, 

 beyond the realm of Arcadia, real or ideal." Through the whole com- 

 pass of Greek literature the sights and sounds of the country — the 

 murmuring of the bees, the rising sun smiting the earth with his shafts, 

 the rich meadows, the cattle feeding in the pastures — furnish images on 

 which the city poets delight to dwell, and share with the sea the 

 thoughts that move harmonious numbers. The plains of Attica were 

 covered with rural homes, the country was full of little sanctuaries 

 for the rural deities, nymphs, and others who frequented them. 



In the Greek classics we not only find how much they knew of agri- 

 culture, but how little we have improved upon their knowledge. They 

 knew the virtues of guano, fish, and seaweed in the corn fields — that 

 land recovered its strength by lying fallow, that hay ricks might become 

 heated and burn up. Though the grain was trodden out by cattle or 

 horses on the thrashing floor, they had invented the flail, and a winnow- 

 ing machine. And well they knew the value of the potent juice of those 

 golden or purple clusters which grew on every tree ana sunny wall. 

 They trained their grapes from tree to tree, making lofty arches, be- 

 neath which the breezes could freely play, abundant currents of pure 



