124 European Agriculture and Rural Economy. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I European Agriculture and Rural Economy, from 

 Personal Observation. By Henuy Colman. Vol. II. Parts 

 IX. and X. 8vo. pp 371, to 598. Boston, 1818. 



Mr. Colman's European tour has at last been brought to 

 a close. Nos. IX. and X. completing the Avork, have been 

 sonrie time before the public, but we have not found time to 

 notice them. So far as we have had leisure to examine this 

 double number, it exceeds in interest any of the previous ones, 

 and is a capital ending to a work well begun, and successful- 

 ly carried through. 



The number is prefaced by several pages of preliminary 

 observations, upon the important subject of agriculture, — the 

 means for its improvement, — and the necessity of its pro- 

 tection by government ; and we cannot omit the following ex- 

 tract which, it seems to us, is deserving of the attention of 

 every individual who has a proper appreciation of the im- 

 portance of agricultural art: — 



" We may be told, that agriculture is a purely material and sensual art, 

 and does not deserve a place among the humane arts. To a mind material 

 and sensualin all its habits, everything becomes material and sensual in the 

 lowest and most degrading sense of those terms. But its rational pursuit is 

 not incompatible with high intellectual attainments, and the most re- 

 fined taste. Whatever occupies and absorbs the mind exclusively, is, of 

 course, unfavorable to any great excellence in other pursuits. Agricul- 

 ture, pursued as a mere branch of trade or commerce, or a mere instrument 

 of wealth, will be found to have influences upon the mind, narrowing and 

 restricting its operations and aspirations, corresponding with any other of 

 the pursuits of mere avarice and acquisition, and which even those of the 

 learned professions, when pursued wholly with such views, are sure to have. 

 But, when followed without exclusive views to mere gain or profit, it is far 

 from being incompatible with a high state of intellectual cultivation. 

 Many of the sciences are the handmaids of agriculture, and serve, as well 

 as ennoble it. Its practical pursuit, though it occupies, yet it does not ex- 

 haust, the mind ; but, within certain limits, inspirits and invigorates all its 

 faculties. A spiritual mind may spiritualize all its operations ; a religious 

 mind sees, in its wonderful and curious processes and their marvellous 

 results, many of the adorable miracles of a beneficent Providence. That a 

 profound study of the agricultural art, and an intimate acquaintance and 

 familiarity with its practical details, are not incompatible with a high degree 



