No. 216.] 333 



pressing — except in prose — the low, base arts of Agriculture; while 

 he admitted the power of the French language to display the prose 

 and poetry in Didactics, Music, Painting, Navigation, War, &c., &c. 

 Such was the opinion of literary Frenchmen, while more than a cen- 

 tury before that time Leonel da Costa had made a beautiful transla- 

 tion in verse of Virgil's Georgics, with excellent notes. So that we 

 may apply to France the same opinion which Columella, (nearly 

 1800 years ago,) applied to the Romans, (viz:) " We meet every 

 where schools for teaching Music, Painting Geometry, Rhetoric, 

 trifling of all sorts, Horsemanship, but as to the cultivation of our 

 fields, we meet no where with eilher teachers or scholars. 



In 1774, in the Kingdom of Bohemia, a catechism of Rural 

 Economy was adopted, and was introduced into every school where 

 reading and writing were taught. And the following thought was 

 Well expressed in it : " This catechism is introduced into our country 

 schools in order that our farmers may gain a habit of reasoning on 

 all things belonging to Agriculture, and learn to unite the theory of 

 Agriculture with its practice." The King of Denmark followed th 

 example of Bohemia. 



Europe generally owes much to the Empress Maria Theresa for 

 agricultural institutions created by her in Germany. She established 

 in 1770, a chair of Political Economy in Milan, and charged it^, 

 (among other things,) with Rural Economy, 



In 1771, Christiernia, a Lutheran priest, was promoted to a chair 

 in the University of Upsal, in Sweden, and in his opening address 

 broke out in invectives against Rural Economy, calling it the vilest 

 of all arts, that clergymen debased themselves by studying it, that it 

 profaned sacerdotal dignity. Christiernia was as bitter an enemy oi 

 Linnaeus as Anytus formerly was of the learned Socrates. This doc- 

 trine of the priest was very offensive to the workers of the land, and 

 contrary to the intuitive views of the Government, a General As- 

 sembly was called, and a very energetic memorial presented against 

 Christiernia, declaring that his doctrines were perfectly absurd and 

 contrary to all the true principles on which the prosperity of the 

 state depends, that it was the duty of Government to protect Agri- 

 cultural institutions, &c., &c. Christiernia was condemned to repair 

 the injury he had done, and to teach his scholars truths entirely op- 

 posite to his errors; and the King Gustavus third declared that Agri- 

 culture was the first of all arts, and that next to the sacerdotal func- 

 tions, it was the most honorable of all, and that Ecclesiastics ought 

 to teach both by words and by example the practical exercise of 



