INTRODUCTION. jjXXi 



habits and acquirements. This idea, extended to out- door 

 labourers, will hold equally true— and in order to have them 

 the moft aitively ufeful in their ftations — to acquit them- 

 felves with judgment and dexterity — and indeed with that 

 ufeful tafte^ which every field employment requires or ad- 

 mits, they muft have acquired ftrong habits of decency and 

 of order. This gives men of every ftation a bias to exa^- 

 nefs and propriety, in every part of their labour;— and the 

 more they have been fo praaically accuftomed at home, the 

 more habitually will they afpire to excellence abroad. Whe- 

 ther the bufinefs to be done be the cleanfing of a ftable, a 

 pen, or a fold for cattle; of a farm-yard, a pond in the field, 

 the making or mending of a ditch, the planting or plalliing 

 of a hedge, the grubbing up of weeds or brambles, the 

 mendingof a road, or whatever elfe in thefe common offices 

 of the labourer; any or all of them will be done the better, 

 by how much the labourer has been accuftomed to value 

 conveniencies, and the appearances of neatnefs in and about 

 his own dwelling. If he be accompanied in his labour 

 by one or more of his own children, they will naturally 

 emulate the tafte of their father — and they will in general 

 not fail to carry thofe ideas of uleful exailnefs, alrernately, 

 from their cottage to the field, and from the field to their 

 cottage. But if the cottage be fo fmall, or ill-contrived, fo 

 fhattered and miferable in its lights and covering, and ill- 

 accommodated with garden ground, that it cannot be made 

 healthful, pleafant, or profitable, they have not a reafonable 

 motive to delight in it, or to exercife ingenuity and indul'try 

 about it, in their morning and evening hours. Indeed, ge- 

 nerally fpeaking, fuch miferable cribs have feidom any quan- 

 tity of ground to exercife ingenuity and indullry upon A 

 piece of potatoe ground is, perhaps, got at a diitance ;— this 



IS 



