A NEW WORK ON THE LIFE AND ARTS OF THE ANCIENTS. 25 



PASTORAL LIFE AND MANUFACTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. 



THE HISTORY OF PILK, COTTON. LINEN, WOOL, and other Fibrous Substsnoes ; includinK Obser- 

 vations on Spinning, Dyeing. luid Weaving. Also an account of the Pastoral Life of the Anci<;ijt.-?, their 

 Social state and attainments in the Domestic Arts — with Appendices. Illustrated by Steel En;,'iavinjjs. 

 New- York : Harper &, Brothers, i>\i CUti-st. 



To this work of elegant literature we may have recourse for an apt illustra- 

 tion to enforce the views we have advanced as to the nature and variety of know- 

 ledge with which every farmer should endeavor to store and embellish the mind 

 of his son. 



As it does not follow that a garden, enriched with heavy crops of potatoes and 

 carrots, should not also be beautified with roses and lilies ; so neither is it be- 

 comuig in the man of the country to study only the time to sow and the depth 

 to plant — how to fatten and when to shear or to slaughter. The idea that prac- 

 tical farmers should not study botanj', or mineralogy, or make pretension to any 

 knowledge of Natural History, and other of the many attractive and interesting 

 subjects, in natural and close association and alliance with their position and pur- 

 suits, has its origin in the arrogant and supercilious presumption of other classes, 

 or in a mean under estimate of what is becoming to themselves. The truth 

 is that there is no business or profession which branches off into so many and 

 such elegant walks of science and literature, unless it be perhaps that of the medi- 

 cal profession. True, the lawyer who is not content to be a mere pettifogger, 

 should explore the field of history, be familiar with the great poets, and often has 

 occasion for some elementary knowledge of several sciences to enable him the 

 closer to examine witnesses, and to illustrate the principles sometimes of medical 

 jurisprudence ; sometimes of navigation, sometimes of vegetable physiology ; but 

 ihe gravamen, the great labor of his professional life, is the dry siiuly of statute law. 

 To the farmer, the book of Nature is open to invite, instruct and amuse him oa 

 every hand, and if a right-minded man, he can neither be content with himself, 

 nor qualified to fill the high and responsible function of parent to his children, if 

 he does not give a portion of his time to the acquirement of such literary know- 

 ledge, and such acquaintance with Natural History, as will enable him to under- 

 stand the nature, habits, and properties of the things that surround him in his 

 every day walks. To suppose that it becomes him to confine himself tamely and 

 quietly to the mere practical working details of his profession, is an idea fit to 

 be inculcated by demagogues who would brutalize and then ride him: it is an 

 insult which his own self respect cannot too promptly resent. Such at least are 

 our humble notions, and on such notions we shall act in the management of this 

 Journal. 



Were we called upon to indicate, for example, the sort of recreation in the way 

 of reading or study, in which it may be allowable and meet for him to indulge 

 at leisure moments, we might well refer for illustration to the book in 

 hand, " Pastoral Life and Manufactures of the Ancients." See for in- 

 stance to what variety of anecdote, information, and even poetry it treats you, on 

 the subject of the humble but useful silk-ivorm — a poor insect, for whose products 

 in a foreign land our industry is taxed some ten millions a year. Now ask any 

 of our young men, just turned out from a?i ordinary old-fashioned country 

 school, or most of our dandies grown to man's estate, to tell vou all thev know 



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