AGRICOLA
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AGRICOLA
A STUDY OF AGRICULTURE AND RUSTIC LIFE IN THE GRECO-ROMAN WORLD FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF LABOUR
BY W E HEITLAND MA FELLOW OF ST JOHN’S COLLEGE
CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1921
‘Inspect the basis of the social pile: Inquire,’ said I, ‘how much of mental power And genuine virtue they possess who live By bodily toil, labour exceeding far Their due proportion, under all the weight Of that injustice which upon ourselves Ourselves entail.’ Such estimate to frame I chiefly looked (what need to look beyond?) Among the natural abodes of men, Fields with their rural works; recalled to mind My earliest notices; with these compared The observations made in later youth, And to that day continued—For, the time Had never been when throes of mighty Nations And the world’s tumult unto me could yield, How far soe’er transported and possessed, Full measure of content; but still I craved An intermingling of distinct regards And truths of individual sympathy Nearer ourselves. Wordsworth, Prelude, book XIII.