OUR COUNTRY OUR WHOLE COUNTRY. 221 



A city may flourish by foreign commerce, by be- 

 coming the carrier of other nations, till foreign ag- 

 gression, or foreign rivalship, or the opening of new 

 channels of trade contingences of no unfrequent 

 occurrence shall blast its prospects, and consign it, 

 like Persepolis, Petra, Tyre, and other ancient cities 

 of the East, to ruin and oHivion. 



A town or distinct may llourish by manufacturing 

 industry, as many have done in ancient and in mod- 

 ern times, so long as it can exchange its merchan- 

 dise for the means of subsistence and of acquiring 

 wealth ; but if its dependance for these is upon for- 

 eign lands, its prosperity is unstable ; the interchange 

 is liable to be interrupted by wars, rivalships, and 

 other contingences. 



A country can be long prosperous and truly inde- 

 pendent only when it is sustained by agricultural 

 intelligence and agricultural industry. Its foreign 

 commerce may be swept from the ocean ; its manu- 

 factures may perish ; yet still, if its soil be tilled, 

 and well tilled, it can be made to yield all the abso- 

 lute necessaries of life ; it can, when misfortunes 

 abate, like the roots of the trunkless tree, send forth 

 a new stem, new branches, new foliage, and new 

 fruit ; it can rear again the edifice of the manufac- 

 turer, and spread again the sails of commerce ; and 

 it will yet retain the germe and the spirit of inde- 

 pendence. 



The preceding facts will serve to show the im- 

 portance of agriculture to a nation in sustaining its 

 prosperity and its independence, and in supplying 

 the wants and multiplying the comforts of its popu- 

 lation. The same reasoning that applies to nations, 

 applies to states, to counties, to towns, and to neigh- 

 bourhoods. A griculture constitutes the basis of their 

 prosperity, directly or remotely ; and the blessings 

 which it confers are always in the ratio of the intel- 

 ligence, skill, and industry which direct and control 

 its operations. Take a town, for example, which 



