But the earth has suffered a sad reverse. The loss of 

 innocence was followed by the loss of paradise. The ground 

 has been cursed for man's sake, and doomed to bring forth 

 thorns and thistles, and man himself to earn his bread by 

 the sweat of his brow. From that sad hour to the present 

 time, agriculture has required our utmost labor and ingenu- 

 ity. Useless and noxious weeds spring up spontaneously, 

 and flourish in all their pomp and luxuriance, while every 

 plant adapted to our sustenance or pleasure, must be nur- 

 tured by our care. In our own fertile and happy land, how 

 few plants are the native products of the soil ? With the 

 exception of your Indian corn, your whole farms are stocked 

 with vegetables of other climes. Before these could take 

 root, immense forests were to be removed ; and before they 

 could flourish, they must be enclosed from grazing beasts, 

 or the beasts themselves exterminated. All this effected, 

 your constant labor and care are requisite to defend the 

 tender plant from weeds, insects, and reptiles, and to mel- 

 low the earth that it may expand its roots and grow to 

 maturity. 



In rearing animals, your task is not less diflicult. Those 

 which are fitted to be useful, either for food, labor, or cloth- 

 ing, and which you would, therefore, domesticate, are gra- 

 minivorous, and must be restrained from access to such 

 vegetables as you wish to preserve. They are mostly of 

 foreign origin, and unable to subsist in this climate without 

 your care. You must therefore provide for them food and 

 shelter, during the inclement winter, and protect them from 

 beasts of prey. The hawk watches for your poultry by day 

 and the fox by night. The wolf in your sheep-cot, gives 

 ocular demonstration that Samson was not more vaHant 

 among the Philistines, nor ever wielded a jaw-bone with 

 better success. 



There is another event recorded in sacred history, which 

 had an effect upon the whole surface of the earthy and pro- 



