CHAPTER VIII.

STATE OF SOCIETY. The Employments of the People: Agriculture, Manufactures, Hunting, Commerce, the profits of Labor.

IN the natural constitution of man, the author of nature seems to have established the limits, below, and above which, the human race cannot be found. Somewhere within these limits, every nation will take its place: But where, depends chiefly upon the state of society. It should seem that several of the nations of the earth, are yet near the ultimate point of depression; and have been so, from time immemorial. But what is the ultimate point of perfection to which men may rise, we cannot determine. The many and great imperfections, which attend the state of society in every nation, seem to denote that none of them have as yet, made very near approaches to it.

THE causes which produce the degradation, or the superiority of one nation to another, will always be found in those things, which have the greatest effect, in constituting their state of society. Among these, the employments of the people, their manners and customs, their religion, their government, their population, and the degree of freedom which they enjoy, will always be among the capital articles. A just description of these, would afford a proper account of the state of society, in this part of America.

EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE.

AGRICULTURE. The body of the people in Vermont are engaged in agriculture. In a new country where the settlements are yet to be made, agriculture puts on a very different appearance from that, which it bears in the ancient and well cultivated settlements. There, the business is to cultivate and improve the farms, which have been already greatly improved: To increase the produce, by the application of more labor and cultivation, and thus to derive a greater profit from the land. In a new settlement, the first business of the husbandman is to cut down the woods, to clear up the lands, to sow them with grain, to erect the necessary buildings, and open the roads; and thus to connect and form a communication between the scattered settlements, and make the most of his labor. Amidst the hard living and hard labor, that attends the forming a new settlement, the settler has the most flattering prospects and encouragements. One hundred acres of land in a new town, does not generally cost him more than he can spare from the wages of one or two years. Besides maintaining himself, the profits of his labor will generally enable a young man, in that period of time, to procure himself such a tract of land. When he comes to apply his labor to his own land, the produce of it becomes extremely profitable. The first crop of wheat will fully pay him for all the expense he has been at, in clearing up, sowing, and fencing his land; and at the same time, increases the value of the land, eight or ten times the original cost. In

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this way, every day's labor spent in clearing up his land, receives high wages in the grain which it procures, and adds at the same time a quantity of improved land to the farm. An acre of land which in its natural state, cost him perhaps the half of one day's labor, is thus in one year made of that value, that it will afterwards annually produce him from fifteen to twenty five bushels of wheat; or other kinds of produce; of equal value. In this way, the profits attending labor on a new settlement, are the greatest that ever can take place in agriculture; the la borer constantly receiving double wages. He receives high wages in the produce of his corn or wheat; and he receives much higher wages of another kind, in the annual addition of a new tract of cultivated land to his farm. This double kind of wages, nature with great benevolence and design, has assigned to the man of industry, when he is first making a settlement in the uncultivated parts of America: And in two or three years, he acquires a very comfortable and independent subsistence for a family, derived from no other source but the earth, and his own industry.

IN every country, agriculture ought to be esteemed, as the most necessary and useful profession. The food and the raiment by which all orders of men are supported, must be deriv ed from the earth. Agriculture is the art, by which this is effected; and of consequence the art which supports, supplies, and maintains all the rest. It ought therefore to be esteemed the primary, the fundamental, and the most essential art of all; that which deserves the first and the

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greatest consideration and encouragement. The wealth drawn from agriculture, is permanent and durable; not subject to the uncertainties attending that, which is derived from commerce and not dependent upon the inclinations, the dispositions, or the regulations of other kingdoms and countries. The people that thus live by their own agriculture, are independent of other nations, and need not be affected by their wars, revolutions, or convulsions; but may always have the means of support and independence, among themselves. While they have that which is drawn from the cultivation of the land, they will have every thing that nature and society can need, or have made valuable,

THE other professions, those especially of the liberal arts, are of great utility, and of high im portance, and they are what society could not flourish without. But they derive their importance and utility from the imperfections of man, and of society; and do not of themselves, add any thing to the wealth of nations. The physi cian, the lawyer, the divine, the statesman, and the philosopher, are engaged in employments of great utility to mankind. But there is not one of them, that adds any thing to the wealth and property of the community: They must all de. rive their support, from the cultivation of the land. Of all arts and professions then, agriculture ought to be esteemed the most useful, and the most important. It is the art which produceth, and nourishes all the rest. The other

arts teach how to preserve the health, the property, and the morals of men; to enlarge their understandings, and to give a right direction to

their minds : But this provides food, raiment, and support for them all.

In no way, has the glory of nations been more expanded, than by their attainments and discoveries in science. The mathematicians have measured, and settled the dimensions of the solar system: But the new settler, has in fact, enlarged the bounds of the habitable creation. The philosophers have expanded our minds with the ideas, and evidence, that the other planets are inhabited; but the simple and honest farmer, has made the earth the place for more inhabitants than it ever had before. And while the astronomers are so justly celebrating the discoveries, and the new planet of Herschel, all mankind should rejoice, that the simple peasant in the wilderness, has found out a way, to make our planet bear more men.

THOSE employments which are the most necessary, and the most useful to men, seem to be the most nearly connected with morality and virtue. Agriculture appears to be more nearly allied to this, than any of the arts. The man that is constantly pursuing the business, which nature has assigned to him, seems to have but little to corrupt him. In the many histories of corruption, there is not any account, that the body of the husbandmen ever became a corrupt, venal, and debauched generation. They must first be led to desert their employments, or they must be blinded and deceived, before they can be made fit tools for politicians to corrupt, and manage. Their profession tends to render them an industrious, hardy, incorrupted, and honest. set of men. It is never in the body of the