well-minded man,
to be done in time, and as God shall stir him up or enable him; there
being such provision already in the case as may give us leave to proceed
without obstruction.

"Parents, under animadversion of the censors, are to dispose of their
children at the fifteenth year of their age to something; but what, is
left, according to their abilities or inclination, at their own choice.
This, with the multitude, must be to the mechanics, that is to say to
agriculture or husbandry, to manufactures, or to merchandise.

"Agriculture is the bread of the nation; we are hung upon it by the
teeth; it is a mighty nursery of strength, the best army, and the most
assured knapsack; it is managed with the least turbulent or ambitious,
and the most innocent hands of all other arts. Wherefore I am of
Aristotle's opinion, that a commonwealth of husbandmen--and such is
ours--must be the best of all others. Certainly my lords, you have no
measure of what ought to be, but what can be, done for the encouragement
of this profession. I could wish I were husband good enough to direct
something to this end; but racking of rents is a vile thing in the
richer sort, an uncharitable one to the poorer, a perfect mark of
slavery, and nips your commonwealth in the fairest blossom. On the other
side, if there should be too much ease given in this kind, it would
occasion sloth, and so destroy industry, the principal nerve of a
commonwealth. But if aught might be done to hold the balance even
between these two, it would be a work in this nation equal to that for
which Fabius was surnamed Maximus by the Romans.

"In manufactures and merchandise the Hollander has gotten the start of
us; but at the long run it will be found that a people working upon a
foreign commodity does but farm the manufacture, and that it is really
entailed upon them only where the growth of it is native; as also that
it is one thing to have the carriage of other men's goods, and another
for a man to bring his own to the best market. Wherefore (nature having
provided encouragement for these arts in this nation above all others,
where, the people growing, they of necessity must also increase) it
cannot but establish them upon a far more sure and effectual foundation
than that of the Hollanders. But these educations are in order to
the first things or necessities of nature; as husbandry to the food,
manufacture to the clothing, and merchandise to the purse of the
commonwealth