1230 STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. Part IV 



discover the want of one and form a good plan. The young man who is just setting out in life may well 

 tremble at the consequences of proceeding on the journey without the guide of a judicious plan ; this plan 

 he must form himself, because he alone feels what he wants, and what he can do to gratify them; all that 

 we can do is to oflfer a few hints. 



79j7. In order to be able to form a plan it is previously necessary to determine the object to be attained 

 by it. Happiness is the object of every action of human life, and consists in the gratification of certain 

 wants and desires : some of these desiderata are peculiar to youth, and others to old age ; but many, as 

 clothing, food, rest, relaxation, entertainment, &c., begin with the earliest, and continue to the latest 

 period of life. All these gratifications are procured by labour; in savage life, by hunting, fishing, and 

 gathering fruits, till the man, no longer possessing strength enough for these labours, is obliged to lie down 

 and die of want: in civilised society, they are also obtained by labour ; but here what is called property 

 exists, and man, in the vigour of his days, when the supplies of his labour are greater than the demands 

 of his wants and desires, or when he chooses not to gratify the latter to the full extent admitted by the 

 former, can, as it were, embody a part of his labour, to be made use of when he is no longer able to per- 

 form it with ease : a man in this case is said to arrive at independence, instead of want, as in the case of 

 the savage, or of beggary, as in the case of the improvident. 



7958. Independence is the grand object which every man destined to live by the exercise of his labour or 

 talents ought to have in view. At certain periods of life, when the imagination is vivid, and health and 

 animal spirits in their utmost vigour, some may prefer present enjoyment, mere animal gratifications, or 

 imaginary distinctions, amatory conquests, titles, rank, military glory, and high literary or professional 

 reputation : it is a noble attribute of our nature to prefer some of these to the mere accumulation of 

 money ; but a great warrior, poet, or painter, arrived at old age and want, if the latter be brought on by 

 common improvidence, will not find himself surrounded by many marks of distinction ; and though it may 

 possibly be some consolation to him that the three or four letters composing his name will be sometimes 

 pronounced together after he is dead, yet it will not be much. 



7959. The exercise of his profession is the most rational mode in which an agriculturist, of whatever 

 grade, can pursue independence. Only extraordinary circumstances can justify a change of profession ; 

 in common cases it indicates a want of steadiness of character, or a want of success, and the latter is 

 commonly attributed to want of skill ; it is better, therefore, to pursue unremittingly the profession to 

 which we have been educated, even though we should not be very successful in it, than co risk an 

 infringement on character by adopting another. The practice of agriculture, as we have already seen, 

 17710.) is carried on by three different classes, serving, commercial, and artist agrictilturists ; on each 

 of these classes we submit a few hints to aid them in forming a plan of life, and regulating their 

 expectations. 



7960. The greater number of agriculturists must ever belong to the lower grades of the serving class ; 

 and act as ploughmen, herdsmen, shepherds, hedgers, woodmen, and labourers of all-work. These form 

 the greater proportion of mankind in every civilised country, and must ever remain the bulkiest material 

 in the social fabric. Comparing one age and country with another, however, there may be the greatest 

 difference in their intellectual and physical condition. The ploughman of Russia is but a remove from 

 his horse. The ploughmen in different parts of Britain are as intelligent as their emplovers : in Scot- 

 land they have the Bible by heart, are familiar with the history of their country, and not ignorant of its 

 literature ; they lead a laborious life, but they enjoy the inestimable blessings of health, sound sleep, and 

 peace of mind, till the latest period ; they are almost always independent, either from their labour, their 

 savings, or, in old age or sickness, IVom the assistance they receive of their children in return for 

 what was laid out on their education. These men are as happy, relatively to their capacity for happi- 

 ness, as any other class whatever : if their measure is smaller, it is as full as the largest ; for the essen. 

 tial materials of comfort and happiness are the same in all classes, and in all classes a man's wants and 

 wishes accommodate themselves to the means of gratifying them. The rich have no wants, and their 

 desires for the most part are no sooner expressed than gratified ; the pains and pleasures of life are 

 neutralised into a kind of insipidity, till ennui brings on disease, which to this class becomes a blessing, 

 by procuring for them the occupation of taking medicine, the duty of attending to the doctor's regula- 

 tions, and the pleasures of convalescence. 



7961. Constant labour, even that of the humblest description in the country, when it is not oppressive, 

 and where it is accompanied with abundance of food, sufficient clothing, and good health, is by no means 

 inconsistent with happiness. It is a common but most erroneous idea, that happiness is confined either to 

 the rich or the independent. Health and activity are the woods, and a rich man who has nothing to 

 do is unquestionably more miserable than any ploughman in the empire. *' Happiness," says one who 

 has thought much on the subject, " is the full and vivid satisfaction of the mind ; and it consists in 

 content and uninjurious enjoyment, that is, enjoyment not injurious either to oneself or to any other. 

 Among the very first requisites to this satisfaction, it will readily be perceived, is employment, 

 either bodily or mental ; and the more energetic, without exhaustion, is the employment, the more full 

 and vivid will be the satisfaction. The human mind is naturally active ; and, except in sleep, if even 

 then, cannot with impunity be motionless or torpid. Occupation is as necessary to its health as circulation 

 of the blood is to the body's. Employed it must be, to know content or feel enjoyment ; for, by any want 

 productive of pain, either bodily or mental, especially the latter, content and enjoyment are, according to 

 the degree of the pain, destroyed or diminished ; and the want, which the unemployed mind invariably 

 feels, is as invariably productive of uneasiness, of listlessness, and lassitude, and their inseparable 

 attendant, mental pain. Indeed this pain is, not unfrequently, altogether unendurable. * All the impor- 

 tunities and perplexities of business,' says Dr. Johnson, ' are softness and luxury compared with the 

 incessant cravings of vacancy and the unsatisfactory expedients of idleness.' ' It is this intolerable 

 vacuity of mind,' says Paley, * which carries the rich and great to the race-course and the gaming-table.' 

 It is this vacuity, says experience, which often arms them against themselves, and hurries them to self- 

 destruction. If, also, employment is necessary to the health of the mind, exercise is to that of the body. 

 Employment to the mind and exercise to the body are in some degree substitutes for each other; but, for 

 the full content and enjoyment which constitute happiness, they both, in due proportion, are necessary." 

 (Co-operative Magazine, vol. i. p. 6.) 



7962. The plan of life suitable for the operative agriculturist may very well be founded on the condition 

 of this class of men in the northern counties of Northumberland, Berwickshire, East Lothian, and others. 

 We have already (7809. and 7834.) described in general terms the manner in which farm servants areshired, 

 lodged, and paid in these counties; and details by an eminent Northumberland farmer will be found in 

 the sixth volume of the Gardener's Magazine (p. 589.). The essence of the mode consists in the employer 

 providing the employed with comfortable cottages and gardens, and paying them chiefly in the necessaries 

 of life, in so much meal or flour, so much ground to grow potatoes and flax or hemp, a cow's keep, the 

 run of a pig, if a shepherd so much wool or so many sheep, the loan of a team to bring home coal or other 

 fuel, and a Certain proportion of money. By this mode of payment the operative countryman is always 

 sure of a comfortable home and food,' sure of milk, butter, meal, bread, and potatoes, the produce of a 

 pig, poultry, and bees, and of the produce of his garden ; and tlxis, however high may be the prices of 

 these articles in the public market. These good things can only be rendered nugatory by the evil of a bad 

 wife. All country servants hired by the year might be accommodated and paid more or less in this man- 

 ner ; and to this mode of life and payment they ought to look forward as the ultimatum of their grade in 

 the scale of operative agriculturists. By prudent conduct, in regard to the increase of their family, and 

 by frugality, they may live in decency and comfort, educate one or two children, and save something for 

 old age, or unforeseen occurrences. 



