himself barely in fruitlefs fpeculations or idle refearches, which have no influence on the welfare of human fociety? Canft thou poffibly imagine that men who thus think and act can claim any just pre`cedence above the husbandman? Or canft thou then doubt of the great importance both of him and his vocation? Canft thou refufe him the ef teem and the gratitude he deserves ? No, the cultivation of the earth is the first, the most natural, the most neceffary, the nobleft and moft honourable condition and calling of man; and he that defpifes this ftation of life, defpifes the ordinance of God, and forgets to what purposes man was defigned by his Creator.

O thou who confumeft in town the products of the country, forget not from whence the food thou enjoyeft, the beverage that refreshes thee, the cloathing thou weareft, proceed, whence and by whom they are prepared and adapted to thy ufe; and defpife them not who render thee this effential, this indifpenfable fervice! Honour the hufbandman as thy steward and provider; opprefs him not with hard fervices, with fevere exactions, and still lefs with the burden of contempt, fo hard to be borne; for he too has the manly, the moral fentiment, and that very frequently lefs impaired or vi tiated than the generality of the inhabitants of populous towns. Honour him as thy elder brother, who provides for the whole family, profecutes their

most laborious affairs, and thereby leaves his younger brethren time and leifure and ability, to provide for the conveniences rather than the neceffaries of life, and to invent and to enjoy a variety of more refined pleafures. Yes, honour agriculture, as the prime, the peculiar fource of wealth, as the firmest fupport of the commonweal, without which neither arts, nor sciences, nor trade, without which even thy city luxury and fplendor could not fubfift; and, if thou haft no means, no calling, no occafion, to pursue arts and fciences, trade and commerce, or to ferve in what are termed the higher circles of the world; then hafte thee back to thy primitive vocation, to the culture of the ground; and believe that thou art more agreeable in the fight of God, thy Lord, and far more honourable in the eyes of thy intelligent brethren, than if, replete with vanity and pride, thou fquander away thy time and thy faculties, and require to reap where thou haft not fown!

This is not all, my chriftian brother! Even in respect to the fuperior destination of man when we have done with this terrestrial life, our fojourn in the country, and our converse with its inhabitants, inftructive. How many mental powers, be very how many great and happy difpofitions, how many generous fentiments, wilt thou not there discover, of which, in their confined and narrow fphere, in their fimple and uniform train of affairs, but few

may

VOL. II.

.K

can

can be exerted, applied, employed, or used in the degree and extent to which they are adapted! How many heads, which for fagacity, for ingenuity, for docility, for extending or improving fome of the fciences, or by ftate-policy, would have rendered themselves confpicuous, had they been produced in different circumftances, and in other connections! How many hearts, fufceptible of the nobleft and most effective benevolence, which might have felt and provided for the happiness of many thousands, if they were not thus totally deftitute of the proper. means and opportunities! How many perfons, who live and die in the deepest obfcurity, that would have attracted the attention or admiration of all beholders, had they been placed on a more spacious stage! And shall not these powers, these dispositions, be unfolded in another life? Shall these generous fentiments never be able to exert themselves in action? Shall all these active and improvable minds, all these fenfible hearts, all these eminently good and useful human creatures, fhall they never be what, from the ground plot of them, they might be and become? Has their Creator made fuch great preparatives for fo poor a purpofe; can he have lavished away fo much power of production for fuch trifling effects? Couldst thou expect this of him whom all nature proclaims to be fupremely wife? No, the more undeveloped capacities, the more-reftricted faculties, the more unfinished human intellects,

intellects, thou meeteft among thy brethren; fo much the more certain mayst thou be of their immortality and of thine own, of their and thine everlafting progress towards higher perfection.

Very instructive to the reflecting man, is, thirdly, his abode in the country, in regard to what is termed happiness. Here feeft thou, o man, thoufands of thy brethren and fifters, dwelling not in palaces, not in houses adorned with the beauties of art; who partake of no coftly dishes artificially prepared; who wear no fumptuous and fplendid apparel; who loll on no luxurious couches; who yet in their humble cottages, with their ordinary food, in their simple attire, on their hard beds, find much comfort and joy and nourishment and recreation, who probably find in all these a greater relish, than thou in the enjoyment of affluence and fuperfluity. Here feest thou thousands of thy brothers and fifters, who are daily employed in the most laborious, toilfome, and which appear to thee the most disagreeable and painful occupations; and who yet are chearful at their work, and contented with their condition: perfons who are totally unacquainted with all thy exquifite delicacies, and with the generality of thy refined pleafures; and yet complain neither of languor, nor of the want of pleafures and pastimes: men whom the glad fentiment of their health and powers, the view of beautiful nature, the profpect of a plentiful harveft, an abundant production of the fruits of the orchard, the

peaceful enjoyment of the refreshing evening breeze, the familiar table-talk, and the animated rejoicings on festivals and Sundays, more than compenfate for the want of thy fplendid distinctions; men, in short, who may be very confined even in their religious notions, and probably are erroneous in many respects; but adhere to what they know and believe, and confole and refresh themselves by meditations on God and the world to come, on numberlefs occafions, wherein thou who knowest, or pretendest to know more, art driven and toffed from doubt to doubt, and no where findest peace.

Here oh learn what real happiness is, by what means and in what path thou mayft feek and find it. Here learn that happiness is not confined to affluence; does not consist in outward glare; not in rank and titles; not in a foft, luxurious, idle, and inactive life; not in an eternal round of diverfions; not in the unhappy means of hearkening to every childish foolish fancy, and in exploring the methods of its gratification. No, learn to find it in the chearful fentiment, and the alert application of our powers, in an active and bufy life, in the due difcharge of the duties of our calling, in fetting bounds to our defires, and in the diminution of our artificial wants; to know that it confifts in contentednefs of heart, and in comfortable reflections on God, and on the better world of futurity; that it therefore is far more dependent on ourfelves and our manner of féeing and judging of things, than on our outward

circum