husbandry
is
degraded
with us,
and the
farmer
leads the
meanest of
lives. He
knows
Nature but
as a
robber.
Cato says
that the
profits of
agriculture
are
particularly
pious or
just
(maximeque
pius
quaestus,)
and
according
to Varro
the old
Romans
“called
the same
earth
Mother and
Ceres, and
thought
that they
who
cultivated
it led a
pious and
useful
life, and
that they
alone were
left of
the race
of King
Saturn.”
We are
wont to
