AN 'APPLICATION.' Ill 



dren, they wonder she interferes so seldom, and 

 with such mild half-measures, to rescue her be- 

 leaguered sons if not from the foes in front, at least 

 from the fools behind who go bleating about, exagge- 

 rating every fact, like street-newsmongers ; dressed 

 in the livery of science, like a monkey in regi- 

 mentals, and understanding and appreciating the 

 language they talk at second-hand, as much as the 

 organ-grinder does the opera-tune his winch works 

 threadbare. 



A good solid inpenetrable advocate of old- 

 fashioned ignorance, falling foul of one of these 

 light gentry, snaps him up at a mouthful ; and no 

 harm done neither : but the mischief lies in the 

 corollary * So much for your Science ! ' 



Agriculture has had enough of this, and some- 

 thing to spare. Counterfeits of every sort and 

 shape have crowded at the heels of every improve- 

 ment, every invention, every good suggestion, every 

 new manure; till Art and Science are well-nigh 

 ashamed of the sound of their own names, and are 

 fain to wear smock-frocks for incognito. The plague 

 that has reached its height in the present decade, 

 was beginning its infective process in the last, of our 

 nineteenth century. It knocked that gentle knock 



