292 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



with smoke ; without bed, table, chair, or plate, or knife, or fork ; 

 with, indeed, no article of furniture save a kettle in which to boil 

 their potatoes, and a basket in which to take them up ; with no 

 other seat but a bit of dried turf or peat, and no bed to lie down 

 upon but a flock of straw, which was frequently shared in 

 common by the children and the pig, I have found a crowded 

 family, with rags for clothing that scarcely hid their nakedness, 

 living from one year s end to the other upon potatoes and water, 

 and never more than once a year tasting either bread or meat. 



This is not the place for me to enter into the political con 

 siderations connected with this condition of things in a country 

 which, in respect to its climate arid soil, and resources for useful 

 industry, and means not only of comfortable subsistence to a 

 population quadruple of that which exists there, but in means of 

 abundance and wealth, is eminently favored of Heaven. But I 

 refer to the example of Ireland to show that where persons can 

 remain satisfied under privation and extreme penury ; where 

 they are content to live upon the meanest fare, and to occupy 

 habitations scarcely fit for the shelter of the lowest of the brute 

 creation; where, with only a mud-cabin and a potato patch, 

 without even money enough to pay the wedding-fee, (for this is 

 made out by the contributions of friends on the occasion,) they 

 are willing to take upon themselves the responsibilities of 

 marriage, and become the founders of families to be born only to 

 inherit a similar destitution and wretchedness, it is difficult 

 to find motives to rouse them to exertion and industry. Until 

 a revolution can be effected in their feelings, and a set of wants 

 created within them, any strong hopes of the improvement of 

 their condition seem idle. 



The wants of men, then, are the great incentives to exertion ; 

 and the stimulus of profit, the desire of gain and of accumulation, 

 is that which induces enterprise and effort, which excites inquiry 

 and leads to knowledge, which prompts to labor, and thus urges 

 men on to new acquisitions and continual progress. We may 

 appeal to higher motives than self-interest, where there are 

 minds capable of appreciating a higher class of motives ; but it 

 is absurd to consider inferior motives as wrong, where better 

 cannot be had ; and self-interest .and the desire of gain are not 

 only innocent, but commendable, where we do not seek gain or 

 pursue our own interests to the injury and loss of others. 



