MR. cushing's address. 11 



pomp, when he himself guides the plough in the furrow as an 

 example and a sign to the universe. 



4. Whatever may be the political name of a government, it 

 is monarchical in spirit and fact, if the land be held chiefly or 

 in great part by the sovereign, as in Egypt, Russia, or In- 

 dia ; it is aristocratic, if it be held in large estates by individu- 

 als, as in Great Britain or Hungary ; it is democratic, if it be 

 extensively distributed among the people for cultivation, as in 

 France or the United States, 



5. A political society will be stable, or otherwise, according 

 to the predominance in its composition and control of those 

 interests, which are directly associated v/ith the earth and the 

 natural productions of land or sea, or of those which consist 

 only in the modification or distribution of natural productions. 



Accordingly, countries, like Egypt, India, China, whose pri- 

 mary interest is agriculture, seem to possess indestructible vi- 

 tality. Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, have, by 

 successive waves of invasion, broken down the monuments of 

 art in Egypt, but not her prosperity ; Mongols and Manchus 

 have expended their lust of plunder on the fertile soil of China 

 in vain ; Tartars and English have in like manner labored un- 

 successfully to exhaust the wealth of India : for if Man be 

 powerful to waste and destroy. Nature is yet more powerful to 

 renovate and repair. 



6. The tendency of agriculture is to distribute men over the 

 country at large, of manufactures and commerce to accumulate 

 them in great masses on given points. Of course, in the form- 

 er will be found the traits of more simple habits, of a healthier 

 state of the moral and physical man, and of less mobility of ideas 

 and character : whilst in the latter will be more civilization of 

 mind and body, but less vigor and individuality of stamp ; 

 more accomplishment in the fine arts, but less virtue ; more 

 new ideas, but less of reliable ones ; emotions evanescent, 

 though vivid ; movement, change, instability. 



7. If, in a political society, which is wholly or in chief part 

 agricultural, the community be divided into two classes, one 

 owners of the soil and the other mere laborers, whether that 

 state of things result from conquest, as of England by the Nor- 



