396 LAND REFORM 



" Where moisture sweet 

 Gladdens an unctuous loam, and where the glade 

 Is full of grass, with fruitful riches stor'd. 

 On which from lofty rocks glide falling streams, 

 And from them draw a fertilizing slime." 



. "But in a hilly tract 

 The hungry gravel scarce yields humble plants 

 Of casia and of rosemary for bees." 



. ** Too happy they, the tillers of the fields. 

 If their own bliss they knew. To whom herself, 

 Far from the strife of arms, the grateful Earth 

 Yields from her lap an easy sustenance." 



. " Still with his crooked plough the husbandman 

 Goes on to cleave the ground. His labour hence 

 In annual course returns. Hence he sustains 

 His country's weal, and his own household small, 

 Hence herds of kine, and the deserving steers. 

 Nor finds he in the welcom'd tasks a pause ; 

 For each advancing season still abounds 

 With fruits, or new born flocks or harvest sheaves, 

 And loads from furrows more than fill his barns." 



After invoking the gods of agriculture and pouring 

 out libations to them, the husbandmen indulge in re- 

 creations : — 



" Erects a mark, at which the herdsmen aim 

 Swift rival javelins. Then their sturdy frames 

 Are stripp'd for wrestling in the rustic ring." 



The leading ideas throughout these charming pages 

 are that agriculture is a divine calling, and that on it 

 and on nothing else the strength and glory of nations 

 depend : 



" This life of yore the ancient Sabines led, 

 This Remus and his brother. So in strength 

 Etruria grew. So Rome herself became 

 The beauty and the glory of the world." ^ 



* The "Georgics" of Virgil (Rann Kennedy's Translation, 1849). 



