128 EXCURSIONS ROUND LONDON. 



spontaneously furnishes them with a pro- 

 fusion of her choicest gifts. At the conquest 

 of the New World, the inhabitants of Peru 

 were unacquainted with the plough ; but 

 they employed in the culture of their fields 

 certain sharp instruments ; and when the 

 earth was sufficiently prepared, the}- deposi- 

 ted the different grains in holes made by 



means of a stick. The Canadian savages 



& 



till their fields with wooden instruments 

 somewhat resembling our spade ; and the 

 aboriginal inhabitants of the Canaries em- 



o 



ploy with the same intention, the horns of 

 the ox. In short, every nation from the 

 most remote antiquity, appears to have had 

 some idea of the incalculable advantages of 

 agriculture ; which shows man to be endowed 

 with reflection, and entitled to a just pre- 

 eminence in the scale of creation.. 



It may be justly said, tHat the wants and 

 weaknesses of the human race are the 

 parents of industry. Thus, with the view 

 of shielding himself from the inclemencies 



of 



