4 



practices, (often very good) does not admit improvement to 

 be necessary, and indignantly rejects any innovation. 



He is encouraged in liis contempt for theoretical spe- 

 culations, by the ridicule which a witty author throws on 

 the agricultural projectors of his day. 



It is just a century since Swift made a bitter attack on 

 the Royal Society, which he describes, as a Set of 

 Projectors lately incorporated hy Royal Patent.'' 



It is not for me to defend this respectable body : a century 

 has intervened since this wanton attack was made upon 

 them, and their merits or demerits are best appreciated 

 by their intermediate proceedings and transactions. 



My object in referring to the passage in Swift's 

 Laputa, is to throw light on the arrangement T have 

 made in the agricultural science, and to afford proof of its 

 propriety. 



Sw^iFT says, " the professors contrive new rules and 

 methods of agriculture— new instruments and tools ; all the 

 fruits of the earth shall come to maturity, at whatever 

 season we think fit to choose, and increase an hundred fold 

 more than they do at present." 



He states, " the result of all this to be, that none of 

 these projects are yet brought to perfection, and in the 

 mean time the whole country lies miserably wasted, by all 

 which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times 

 more bent on prosecuting their schemes." 



Admitting this to be a fair account of the facts in Swift's 

 day, (which I much doubt) the picture he draws is a neces- 

 sary result of his own statements, from which we can infer, 

 — That in his time projectors were wild and speculative, 

 practical agriculturists not quite so averse from innova- 

 tions as at present, but equally tenacious of their practices 

 when once adopted. 



