CONCLUSION 395 



also offerings of gratitude for the fruits of the earth on 

 which human Hfe and welfare depend.^ 



Amongst the ancient writings which exalt agricul- 

 ture the Pastorals and Georgics of Virgil may be said 

 to take the first place. Though written about two 

 thousand years ago they are fresh and living to-day. 

 With the exception of some errors, which have been 

 corrected by later discoveries, they are wonderfully 

 applicable to the agricultural industry of the present 

 time. The advice given to cultivators has never been 

 bettered. The poetic treatment, to which no other 

 calling lends itself, glorifies the common incidents of 

 country life. " The plough-share glitters by the furrow 

 worn." **The earth herself, solicited by none, freely 

 each want supplied." "All things are full of Jove. 

 He gives to earth her fruitfulness." The peasant's 

 homestead is called "his little realm." Honey, no 

 doubt a more important article of food than it is now, 

 is "a gift from heaven." 



Virgil, himself a practical farmer, deals with every 

 operation and phenomenon connected with agriculture : 

 ploughing, planting, improving the land, horses, flocks, 

 cattle, implements, the seasons, the animal and vege- 

 table world, nature of soils, etc. etc. Apart from their 

 practical value to the agriculturist, the teachings of 

 Virgil, through the beautiful language in which they 

 are given, create a universal interest in the calling 

 they exalt, and impress on the general reader a sense 

 of the paramount moment of the cultivator's art. 



^ In olden times the prayers "For Rain," "For Fair Weather," "For 

 Plenty," that " Our Land may yield us her fruits of Increase," etc., were 

 not mere forms. But the harvest thanksgiving of the present day seems 

 almost an irreverent act, and the wheat-sheaf in the church a mockery, 

 in a country the policy of which is to lessen and destroy the harvest and 

 to spoil the husbandman. 



