CONCLUSION, [Chap. 



and, that if it would ripen, it would be good for 

 next to nothing. This is a pretty teacJier of the 

 farmers ! The wretched thing thought it should 

 flatter them by putting forth an opinion tending 

 to make them believe that nothing could add to, 

 that nothing could make any real beneficial 

 addition to, the crops which they already pos- 

 sessed, and of which they understood so perfectly 

 well the way to go to work always to secure 

 a sufficient abundance. The wretched creature 

 thought that it should flatter them in this way : 

 it might think besides that the thing would not 

 succeed; but, then, if it did think this, and 

 that, too, in opposition to the opinion so pos- 

 itively expressed by me, what a wretched crea- 

 ture it must have been; and what worse than 

 wretched creatures are those, who bestow their 

 time and their money on its miserable produc- 

 tions ! They are generally full-pursed and empty- 

 skulled bull-frogs, who, in many cases, are the 

 con^esjjondents of the wretch, and who endea- 

 vour to impose on their neighbours and their 

 wives, by reading their own productions to them. 

 I mean those of them who are cursed with the 

 scribbUng-itch ', and, amongst these fellows, who 

 never ought to have been out of a smock-frock, 

 this disease is frequently very prevalent. They 

 write " Letters to the Farmer's Journal," but 

 are always advised by their prudent wives to 



