huntsmen or fishermen, the forests and rivers supply this 

 essential requisite ; eked out it may be occasionally, by contribu- 

 tions rf wild fruits and wild grain. These are, however, at best 

 but a precarious dependence, and where excess or abundance 

 must frequently be succeeded by perifuls of abstinence or want, 

 the wild animals with instinctive dread fly the presence of man, 

 and new hunting grounds must be sought in the more remote 

 recesses of the wilderness. But as population increases and 

 men become gathered into communities, then the chase by 

 degrees ceases to be a reliance, and new sources of aliment must 

 be sought out. These sources the earth itself supplies in 

 exhaustless abundance. Man, keenly observant of her processes, 

 begins to imitate those of nature, in the gathering and sowing of 

 seeds ; and guided by the teaching of such observations, or the 

 dictates of his judgment, learns to prepare the soil and to till the 

 ground. Agriculture thus seems to be coeval with the organiza- 

 tion of society, and is the first practised of all the arts. 



An adequate supply of food being essential to existence, until 

 that is obtained no thought can be given to anything else. But 

 when this supply is abundant, an end only to be ensured by the 

 cultivation of the soil, and no longer requires the labor of the 

 whole community, attention may then be bestowed upon other 

 objects, — at first also of necessity but subsequently of comfort 

 and convenience. As however, no art, not even such as have 

 reference to the physical wants, can flourish or even exist until 

 the object of the original art is in a measure at least attained ; it 

 may be said with truth, that upon it all others depend ; and that 

 agriculture essential to human existence, is an indispensable 

 condition of human progress and of social improvement. 



So too, without agriculture commerce cannot flourish, even if 

 it have a temporary existence. If the skins of animals, the 

 natural products of the forests, and articles of similar origin, can 

 supply to a limited extent the means of traffic, such cannot long 

 maintain an extended commerce. Commerce is the iifterchange 

 of the superfluous products of the labor of different communi- 



