6'94 ON RURAL IMPROVEMENT, AND BOOK III. 



defence, — or from resigning the cares and toils of a political life 

 in the capital, retiring to his paternal inheritance ; let us sap- 

 pose that, impelled by a love of country, a sense of duty, gene- 

 ral benevolence, the prosperity of his family, and a desire of 

 transmitting the name of his ancestors unsullied to posterity, he 

 proceeds to improve his estate. Those hireling managers, and 

 injurious usurpers of authority, who corrupt the poor, and do 

 justice only to favourites, fly before his presence. His tenants 

 and peasantry, before overburthened and sunk in misery, sloth, 

 and ignorance, sufficient to incur the dislike of those who look 

 only at effects without considering causes, now rise into their 

 proper situation, fulfil their duties, and gain the approbation of 

 their landlord. Improved cultivation is introduced, and by 

 this example diffuses itself over the most distant parts of the 

 estate, producing the smiles of plenty and content, in the room 

 of want and wretchedness. On his own residence, see barren 

 mountains become clothed with wood; and on their bleak sides, 

 which formerly produced only heath or moss, now cattle and 

 sheep crop the sheltered glades of pasture ; or the furrows of 

 golden ridges appear in wavy parallels across the declivities. In 

 a mountain recess thus surrounded, see the ancient castle arise 

 on an abrupt eminence, which shoots forward from the larger 

 and wooded hills. Near it flows a rapid stream, which has its 

 source amid the distant mountains. From them it flows in a 

 romantic glen, beneath canopies of wood and impending rocks, 



