THE RURAL SOCRATES. lyf 



^re-cminencc, and which neceffarily includes the quali- 

 ty of being agreeable ; for the mind muil be interellcd 

 before it can receive iolid inflriKftion.**^ "With a view 

 to what was agreeable in agricnllure, I bad eniouragec! 

 a tranflation into French, of Thomfbn's Seafons : But 

 this work contained mere pictures and fcenes of imagi- 

 nation. While I was fearching for lomething which 

 had in it reality and life, I found the R.ural Socrates, 

 which more than arifwerefi my expectations. It con- 

 tains an example of the theory and practice of the moR: 

 perfet^ and rational kind of hufbandfy, and of the moil:' 

 noble philo^>phy and moil elevated piety.— Kliyogg is 

 in every thing r^y hero. How do all our petty preju- 

 3icesiliik before him ! What innate dignity I exhibited too 

 in a man, wflo follows no ether than the lavrs diiTcated 

 by the Supreme Being ^ ! 



It my firustion permitted'me to travel, I ihould ea- 

 gejlyleek the advantages and pleafure to bs derived 

 from coHverfing with ibch a charat^er i 



Perhaps too 1 might convince him of the benefit (did 

 his foil 3] d extent of cultivation admit it) of ploughing- 

 with horfcs^ rather thap with oxen ; fmce onV of mv 

 plough boys with two hoVTes wilL turn over regularly 

 *wo acres in a day, v/hile he requires tv/6 men and four 

 ,>en to do only the half of this in the fame timef . 



I would inform him that there is nothing chimerical irs 

 his idea of a tribe [or ilheme of extenlive famih/ 

 union] ; lince the clans of Scotland are in effed of this" 

 defcriptiou. --If it diould be faid, that thefe clans founcV 

 an uninhabited country, in which to fpread themfelves ; 

 I w^ould then inftance the Haut-p^nigis of St. Omer iu 

 *rnnce ; u ho occupy a fubarb in a great city ; and 



*^* who,. 



*v 



■"^ Many who toink re]I|ion rldlcuhus:^ of cob rTe" conceive at inconfidenr 

 i:h dignity : and lo die teelings ot fuch the writcyr aliades. E. 



i M. i3e Mirabeau v^iil allcvs^ me to aC;;!! that this is a moft rersiarlca- 

 ble rircomftancc : It is a piiy he did not add the fjjl. It u often donar 

 in Norfolk, but only in the very light fcils^ and by no nneans equals o: c 

 acse in hsavisr lands. Y. 



