his farm. And Cincinnatus received the summons to lead the ar- 

 mies of the republic when following the plough: and when 

 that call of his country had been obeyed, and success had crown- 

 ed his arms, he returned again to his interesting occupation. — 

 Cato, the Censor, composed a treatise on the subject. Varro fol- 

 lowed him in a more regular work : and finally, Virgil gave im- 

 mortaUty to Roman agriculture, in his Georgics. An art thus pat- 

 ronized by the rich and povverful,and occupying the attention of the 

 learned,must have been carried to a considerable degree of perfec- 

 tion : though the want of any thing like a correct theory of agri- 

 culture, and the substitution of numerous superstitious notions, 

 must have greatly impeded its progress. 



But the Roman power was now on the wane. Corruption 

 had fixed upon the vitals of the Stale, and this vast fabric of em- 

 pire, which was impregnable to all foreign assaults, must sink by 

 the slow workings of internal disease. Long did Rome linger 

 over her fall : But at length the huge pile of Gothic barbarity 

 and ignorance, was raised on her ruins. For more than ten cen- 

 turies, a thick darkness brooded over the world. Religious in- 

 tolerance and superstitious ignorance, those spirits of night, 

 wielded their two edged swords over the human mind, and lop- 

 ped the first buddings of genius and truth. Though here and 

 there a feeble light was seen, breaking through the darkness, 

 yet it was not till the middle of the fifteenth century, that science 

 and art were seen rapidly rising from the chaos. In 1478, Cres- 

 cenzio a Florentine, published a valuable treatise upon agricul- 

 ture : and he was followed by many of his countrymen in the 

 same track. 



Concerning the state of agriculture in Great Britain, previous 

 to the fifteenth century, we know but little. We may conclude, 

 however, that when men begin to write books on any subject, 

 an interest in it is excited in the community ; and as early as 

 1534, Anthony Fitzherbert produced a philosophical and ingen- 

 ious treatise upon agriculture. But in the succeeding hundred 

 years, nothing appeared on the subject, worthy of notice. In- 

 deed, though rural economy, sometimes waxing and sometimes 

 waning, was upon the whole slowly progressing, yet no remark- 



