Adam, the gardener - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1843 edition. Excerpt: ...the goddess of harvest: and when the husbandman cast his seed into the earth, he would implore her assistance in bringing it to perfection: and when this was accomplished, he celebrated her goodness in thanksgiving and acts of joy, accompanied with dancing, and the crowning of her statue with flowers. " You are aware that our island was formerly conquered by the Romans; those people, therefore, introduced many of their customs among our ancestors; and this ceremony of feasting and dancing at a harvesthome, together with the crowning of the last sheaves with flowers, is derived from them; and in some parts of England it has not wholly passed away, although the religion to which it gave rise never prevailed here, and has yielded to one which, in its pure state, is calculated to make men both wiser, and more like the benevolent Creator of all things, and therefore more happy. "If these rejoicings and feastings have nearly passed away," said Mr. Stock; " if the one has been thought foolish, and the other has been discontinued from too great a love of gain, I do not find that people are wiser than they were in those simple times; I am sure they are not richer, for they have more wants; and they are certainly not happier, for overlabor and anxiety after riches do not produce peace of mind. I am sorry 128 FARMER OLDFIELD. for my countrymen, who seek happiness from aiming to be like their superiors in station, rather than in moderation and content; and I am more sorry for thepoor laboring husbandmen, who are ground down in their wages, and no longer are suffered to rejoice in such merry-makings, on account of the pride and avarice of their rich employers. Old England is no longer the merry country it used to be to the working classes....