to the best epoch of Grecian art. They are evidently of a much earlier date; and, from the strong tincture of Orientalism which they retain, it would seem probable that this style, originated among the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, was carried from thence to the mother country, and was subsequently introduced into Italy. It was particularly in Corinth and in Sicyon, that this art attained to its perfection. As early as the first century of Rome, the intercourse between Etruria and Corinth was frequent; and the vases of the latter formed for a long time an important staple of commerce. Now the eldest and most revered deities of Corinth and Sicyon, viz. Apollo, Diana, Hercules, and Minerva, are precisely those which we meet with most frequently upon the earthen wares of Volsci. They are found also in Sicily and in many parts of Magna Græcia. The flourishing state of Etruria during the first two centuries of Rome, and the excess to which the inhabitants carried the pomp and luxury of their funeral rites, will easily account for the activity which prevailed in this branch of commerce.

This art was practised not only in Etruria, but throughout the whole of Italy. Even in the earthen vessels which were solely employed for ordinary domestic purposes, we find a striking attention to variety and grace of form.

The vessels of which we are now speaking were in common use from the first to the third century of Rome. During the fourth, the art underwent an important change, and was much improved. The cultivation of it was still continued through the fifth and sixth centuries of the same era; but, upon the suppression of the Bacchanalian rites, it fell into disuse, and probably soon after ceased entirely. When, therefore, in the age of Augustus, a large number of them was discovered in the tombs of Capua, they must have excited almost as much surprise and dispute as they now do. Towards the end of the republic they were again brought into use in funeral ceremonies. Then followed a period of rough and awkward imitation, the productions of which are easily distinguished from those of every other age.

25. In the infancy of society, agriculture is one of the first and most important steps in the path of civilization. While men roam free and unfettered from spot to spot, with no passions but those of animal life, and no other care than the daily provision of a precarious subsistence, there is no

foundation even for the first coarse rudiments of civility. But no sooner do they become attached to one place by the ties of cultivation, than a total change ensues in all their feelings. Life becomes a new scene. The domestic affections begin to expand. Individual attachments are formed. Love extends from animate to inanimate objects; and the spot that has witnessed the budding of affection, becomes, by the most natural and forcible of associations, a sharer in all its pleasures and all its endearments. By degrees the circle enlarges, and begins to embrace a wider range of duties. The obligations of a parent, of a husband, of a child, prepare the way for a fuller sense of the duties of man towards man; and the tie that binds him to his home is the first and the strongest link in that holy chain of affections which attaches him to his country.

The state of the agriculture of a country, therefore, affords one of the surest data for judging of its civilization, as well as of the character and the aims of those by whom that civilization was founded. No part of a population adheres so rigidly to ancient maxims and primitive customs, as that which is devoted to the cultivation of the soil. And hence we constantly find, among the men of this class, a variety of usages, which, if attentively considered, would throw much light upon the remoter periods of their history. This inquiry, therefore, is of primary importance in every attempt to arrive at a satisfactory judgment concerning a people, whose history is founded upon scattered traditions and obscure and difficult

monuments.

Agriculture, among the ancient Italians, was under the immediate safeguard of religion. The possessions of the husbandman were protected by the solemnity of holy rites, and his toil cheered and lightened by the grateful recurrence of pious festivals and public games. As each season called for the renewal of its appropriate labors, it brought with it also its peculiar relaxations. Nor were the labors and the pleasures of the field of mere human institution. The gods themselves had partaken of them, had hallowed them by their presence, and directed them by their instructions.

The whole political system of the country was supported by that of its agrarian laws. By the first of these, the civil dominion of the soil was secured to the Patricians. From them the extensive class of clients received certain tracts for

cultivation, from the tillage of which they derived their own subsistence, and contributed by the payment of a fixed tribute to that of the lawful owners. Slaves were sometimes employed in these services, but their number cannot have been great.

The position and the climate of Italy fitted it for the cultivation of a variety of fruits and of grains. Many trees of Asia have become nearly indigenous in this congenial_soil. Many animals, also, of Asiatic origin have thrived in Italy, and multiplied with amazing rapidity. Etruria, the Volscian territory, Picenum, Campania, and Apulia were renowned for their abundant harvests of grain. The vine was carefully cultivated, and the most luxurious of the ancients asked for no choicer wines than those of his own country. Bees, also, were tended with great care, and their rich stores of honey and of wax were highly prized.

Grazing early came to be a leading object of attention. The wools of several districts were in great repute for their softness and their brilliant white. Then, as now, the shepherd tended his flock, during the heats of summer, high upon the sides of the mountains, where an abundant pasturage and clear springs of the purest water supplied all their wants. But, upon the approach of winter, and before the first snowfall, he led them down to the sheltered valleys and fertile maremmas, and, erecting his hut in the midst of his grazingground, awaited the return of the milder season. Autumn and spring still present the same spectacle of migrating flocks to the traveller in modern Italy. Day after day, in these seasons, the highways, from the mountains to the low lands, are filled with long trains of sheep, proceeding by slow stages to their summer or their winter quarters. The veterans of the flock move on with a measured gate and demure aspect, while their younger and more active companions climb every hedge and leap every ditch, to pluck the grass and green shoots that border the way. Behind comes the shepherd, in his coat of skins; his legs bound as high as the knee with strong, coarse leggings; with breeches of thick woollen, and sometimes of skin with the fleece outward; a hat with a broad brim and cone-like crown; and in hand his crook or wand of office. But the most interesting object in this annual caravan is the shepherd's dog. The form and size alone of this animal are sufficient to excite attention. The

nose is long, and, unlike the rest of the head, free from hair. The ears are pricked; the legs large and strongly set; and the whole body covered with a thick coat of shaggy hair, which is no less a protection against the inclemencies of the season, to all the vicissitudes of which he is constantly exposed, than a guard in his frequent contests with his natural enemy, the wolf. This animal relieves the shepherd from more than half his responsibility. He never loses sight of the flock. On a march he is incessantly in motion; now at the head, now on the sides, now behind; and woe to the luckless straggler that dares to wander from his path. When noon brings the hour of repose, he takes his stand at some point where he can be ready for his charge, and at the same time snatch a moment's rest. At night he watches on the outskirts of the fold. The incautious traveller finds him at his throat before he can call for assistance. The wolf dreads him, and never, unless when goaded by the extremity of hunger, ventures to approach his watch. Nor even then can he succeed, if he come singly to the attack. The faithful animal will sometimes hold even two at bay, and give his master time to come to his assistance; and, if this be delayed, it is only after a long and fierce struggle, and over the mangled body of their guardian, that the ravenous prowler of the forest can seize his trembling and defenceless victims.

Many of the peculiar customs of pastoral life were deeply rooted in the feelings of the people. The Palian and Lupercalian games, by which the shepherd sought to propitiate the deity towards himself and his flock, preserve the memory of an age anterior to the foundation of Rome. By a strange engrafting of Pagan rites upon the simple usages of Christianity, traces of these ancient institutions have been preserved down to our own times; and the fires, which were once lighted for a heathen goddess, now blaze in honor of the Virgin.

The part of the herdsman was nearly as important as that of the shepherd. The oxen of Italy were highly esteemed by the ancients for their strength and their size; and it is well known that many have supposed this circumstance to afford a sufficient explanation of the origin of the actual name of the country. The race of horses, also, was in high repute; and the woods of Lucania, of Etruria, and of upper Italy, were filled with innumerable herds of wild hogs. Even the forests

were placed under the immediate protection of the divinity ; and, no one being allowed to touch them except for some public purpose of acknowledged utility, they formed a rich source of national commerce.

But no feature in the agricultural history of ancient Italy gives so high an idea of its progress in civilization, as the reduction of vast tracts of marsh to a state of high cultivation. Many portions of the country, which now exhale noxious and pestilential vapors, were then thickly peopled. Others, now partially redeemed from inundation, and verdant with an unavailable fertility, were among the most populous and productive of the ancient states.

The Middle Ages witnessed a partial and transient return of this prosperity. The Tuscan marshes were drained; towns and cities arose amid the banks and canals which led off the noxious waters; and the whole coast, from the borders of the Genoese to the confines of the Roman states, was covered with a hardy and thriving population, who drew from the soil they had won, enough to meet all their own wants, and contribute to the support of an extensive and gainful commerce.*

26. But the success of agriculture alone would be insufficient to account for the wealth and power, to which the nations of Italy had already attained in the first centuries of Rome. Commerce went hand in hand with the tillage of the soil, conveying its superabundant products to distant lands, and bringing in a rich return of foreign commodities.

The situation of their country must have called the attention of the Italians to navigation at a very early period. But the first navigators were pirates; and this is the not very enviable appellation, that we find frequently coupled by the ancients with the name of the Tyrrheni. Such, however, must necessarily have been the case, when men, ignorant of the legitimate object of nautical science, ventured to launch their barks upon an untried element, and to trust their persons and their property to the mercy of the winds and the waves. The very qualities, which fitted them for such an effort, prepared them to consider themselves as fairly entitled to what

A very interesting exposition of this fact, though from a point of more extensive view than we can take, may be found in an early work of Sismondi, Tableau de l'Agriculture Toscane, pp. 284 et seq.