470 [Assembly 



of its Sovereign, the whole nation were gathered together, and with 

 implicit obedience to authority and reverence for ancient usages, the 

 warlike Persians struggled to emerge from darkness into the light of 

 civilization. Hence arose laws, mech \nical arts, but more particu- 

 larly the ancient and honorable art of agriculture in all its details. 

 For this life sustaining employment almost received divine honors 

 from the worshipers of the sun. 



They too, in an eminent degree, exemplify the stimulating agency 

 in the developement of the resources of that wonderful country, by 

 the encouragement which they gave to the other industrial classes. 

 For their skill in the manufacture of different articles for the royal 

 household, such as shawls, carpets, coverlets and hangings for stately 

 palaces, and the delicacy of their texture, and the brilliancy of their 

 dyes, excited the admiration of every foreign artisan. 



Royalty here laid aside its empty pomp and came down from its 

 adventitious heights and held her annual celebration, with the plain 

 husbandman which taught the sceptre to yield homage to the plow, 

 and haughty monarchs to deign converse with the cultivators of the 

 soil, and repeat the truthful lesson, that the cradle and the grave, the 

 entrance and exit of every man, are the true levellers of all human 

 pride. And that kings are dependent on that hardy race that wring 

 their subsistence from the earth. 



The ancient Romans, more sagacious than the more refined and 

 polished Greeks, were too politic to neglect this life-sustaining occu- 

 pation. Her mighty legions that carried her victorious eagles to the 

 most distant regions, leave the germs of civilization among the rude 

 and unlettered multitudes, that yield to her overwhelming power. If 

 she did sway the rebellious and haughty nations, she made some com- 

 pensation by the majesty and wisdom of her laws, and the general 

 diffusion of the peaceful pursuits of the arts of Cadmus and agricul- 

 ture, among her remotest dominions. 



The enchanting poetry of Virgil and the elegant pages of Colu- 

 mella, show that her distant provinces were planted by the hands of 

 these masters of the world, with the rarest flowers and delicious fruits 

 brought from the furthermost regions. 



The plow, among the Romans, was held in high veneration. Her 

 Cato and Cincinnatus were called from the fields to assume the con- 

 sular robes, but the extinction of this noble pursuit took place with 

 the fall of that republic. 



