160 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



provements in agriculture ; to which, in spite of the prejudices 

 which too often obscure or pervert the vision at so advanced a 

 period of life, he replied, with perfect candor, &quot; Immense im 

 provements ; ive knew nothing j every thing is now better done ; 

 the crops are far more various and more abundant ; the product 

 of wheat has almost doubled the turnip cultivation has been 

 created ; the implements are far better j the live stock is beyond 

 all comparison better ; every thing, every thing is better.&quot; The 

 good old man had lived, like Simeon, in, indeed, a far hum 

 bler sense, to see the marked and strong tokens of the divine 

 goodness in the progressive improvement of every thing around 

 him ; and he proclaimed it with the glowing enthusiasm of 

 youth, and showed the fire still burning under the snow. 

 Happy old age, when, instead of a mind soured under the accu 

 mulated burdens and infirmities of advanced years, and covered 

 with mossy prejudices, it benevolently acknowledges good wher 

 ever good is found ; progress wherever progress is made ; and. 

 instead of growling at the degeneracy of the present times, and 

 sighing over the fading reminiscences of what it deems the 

 superiority of years which are passed, delights in the actual 

 improvements of the present, and sees in them the foreshadow 

 ing of far greater improvements in the distant prospect, when 

 the advances now made, great as they may actually be, and still 

 greater as they seem in comparison with those of days gone by. 

 will be found to be only the first lessons of childhood ! There 

 is a good deal of this spirit or temper here, called by the gentle 

 name, in England, of conservatism; but this man s mind was 

 happily free from it. I have all reasonable respect for antiquity : 

 but, if the presumption may be pardoned, I beg leave to say, 

 with Lord Bacon, I reckon that to be antiquity which is farthest 

 from the beginning. The present times are, therefore, more 

 ancient than those which have preceded them, and are to be 

 reverenced as imbodying the accumulated wisdom and ex 

 perience of past ages. This spirit of improvement, now so rife 

 and active, is the foundation of all intelligent hopes of further 

 progress ; and I am happy in saying that in nothing is it more 

 obvious than in agriculture. 



6. ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. In this progress the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England contributes its full share 



