IV PKEFACE. 



animals, a harmony which serves to perfect the pleasures of the domestic 

 circle, and develop in the human breast an attachment to the birthplace. 

 It furnishes mankind with nearly all things necessary to existence, and 

 thus secures true independence, affording a protection from the corrup- 

 tions which so often prevail among the inhabitants of cities. In a word, 

 the interest of the land-owner is so intimately identified with the general 

 interests of the country at large, that the most worthy rural proprietors 

 everywhere constitute the class best fitted to direct public affairs. 



Under all these considerations, agriculture offers to the human race the 

 chief means for its multiplication, independence, and moral progress. 

 More than any 'other active branch of industry, it gives character to 

 national life. In the order of the material world and the province of 

 labor, it is the power which best carries out the objects of creation. 



The preeminence of agriculture over other arts has been so often pro- 

 claimed among the ancients as well as the moderns, that it may be regarded 

 as an axiom. 



Even in the eighteenth century, in France, a melancholy epoch charged 

 with so many vices proceeding from the influence of courtesans cor- 

 rupted by luxury and idleness, the administrators of public affairs were 

 obliged to make an official acknowledgment of their respect for agri- 

 culture. 



"Among the useful arts," says Cicero, "there is none superior to 

 Agriculture, none more fruitful, none more agreeable, none more 

 worthy of a freeman." De Officiis. 



