STUDY xiir. .13,3 



,produ(5bions of an equal portion of ground, taken 

 in the plains of the neighbourhood, and managed 

 on the great fcale of agriculture ; and you will be 

 fenfible of a prodigious difference. There is, 

 likewifè, a difference equally ftriking in the num- 

 ber, and in the moral charader of the labourinsi: 

 poor who cultivate them. I have heard a refpedt- 

 ,^ble Ecclefiaftic declare, that the former clafs went 

 regularly to confeffion once a month, and that fre- 

 quendy their confeffions contained nothing which 

 called for abfolution. 



1 fay nothing of the endlefs variety of delight 

 which refults from their labours ; from their beds 

 of pinks, of violets, of larks-heel; their fields of 

 corn, of peafe, of pulfe ; their edgings of lilach, 

 of vines, by which the fmall polTeffions are fub- 

 divided : their ftripes of meadow-ground difplay- 

 ing alternately, opening glades, clumps of willows 

 and poplars difcovering through their moving um- 

 brage, at the diftance of feveral leagues, either the 

 mountains melting away into the Horizon, or un- 

 known cailles, or the village-fpires in the plain, 

 whofe rural chimes, from time to time, catch the 

 ear. Here and there you fall in with a fountain of 

 limpid water, the fource of which is covered with 

 ^n arch enclofed, on every fide, with large flabs of 

 ftone, which give it the appearance of an antique 

 .^monument, I have, fometimes, read the following 



ic 3 innocent 



