394 ON THE 



merce, our butter, our cheese, our tallow, our 

 woo!, and our hides, which not only supply us 

 with our immediate necessities, and obtain for 

 us in return foreign commodities to an amount, 

 highly favourable to individual wealth and to 

 national prosperity; but also through the medium 

 of that commerce, we have a< quired a know- 

 ledge of countries and their resources, of which, 

 few other nations have hitherto been susceptible. 

 For the support of animals, so universally ap- 

 plicable to human wants and conveniences, agri- 

 culture in all its comprehensiveness, has, hj this 

 favoured country at least, been brought into its 

 fullest activity ; and from the virtuous occupa- 

 tions and manly pursuits to which it has given 

 rise, and from the interest it excites in the soil 

 to which we are attached ; it blends in its oper- 

 ations and consequences, not only vast national 

 importance, but some of the best feelings and 

 noblest propensities of our nature. A genuine 

 love of our country and of its invaluable insti- 

 tutions, and a laudable emulation to improve its 

 resources ; an affectionate attachment to our 

 friends and connections, and a benevolent dis- 

 position towards our species in general ; and 

 lastly, (though not the least in our estimation,) 

 a kind and protecting humanity to those useful 

 animals, through which we principally derive 

 every blessing which agriculture, and a soil that 

 is congenial, can bestow. 



