46 EXCESSIVE CULTIVATION 



And I think/' said Mrs. Heathfield, that 

 those persons err greatly, who, losing sight of 

 this grand display of Almighty power and be- 

 neficence, and, forgetting the purpose for which 

 the ability given to man must have been de- 

 signed, would leave all unemployed, and con- 

 temn, as some well-meaning persons do, many 

 of the useful, and nearly all the polite arts." 



I am happy to believe," said Mr. Long- 

 hurst, that sentiments of this sort are fast 

 wearing out amongst us. I hope that the con- 

 trary extreme, an excessive cultivation of these 

 arts, and those luxurious habits by which pow- 

 erful empires have been ruined, may not over- 

 throw old England in like manner." 



It were better," said I, " to content our- 

 selves with the food, furniture, and apparel, of 

 an ancient Briton, than to lower ourselves into 

 a dependence on luxuries for our happiness ; a 



