can be onerous to either party. It is the interest of the
farmer that his work should be done with effect and celerity; and that
cannot be, unless the laborer is well fed, and otherwise found with such
necessaries of animal life, according to its habitudes, as may keep the
body in full force, and the mind gay and cheerful. For of all the
instruments of his trade, the labor of man (what the ancient writers
have called the _instrumentum vocale_) is that on which he is most to
rely for the repayment of his capital. The other two, the _semivocale_
in the ancient classification, that is, the working stock of cattle, and
the _instrumentum mutum_, such as carts, ploughs, spades, and so forth,
though not all inconsiderable in themselves, are very much inferior in
utility or in expense, and, without a given portion of the first, are
nothing at all. For, in all things whatever, the mind is the most
valuable and the most important; and in this scale the whole of
agriculture is in a natural and just order: the beast is as an informing
principle to the plough and cart; the laborer is as reason to the beast;
and the farmer is as a thinking and presiding principle to the laborer.
An attempt to break this chain of subordination in any part is equally
absurd; but the absurdity is the most mischievous, in practical
operation, where it is the most easy,--that is, where it is the most
subject to an erroneous judgment.

It is plainly more the farmer's interest that his men should thrive than
that his horses should be well fed, sleek, plump, and fit for use, or
than that his wagon and ploughs should be strong, in good repair, and
fit for service.

On the other hand, if the farmer ceases to profit of the laborer, and
that his capital is not continually manured and fructified, it is
impossible that he should continue that abundant nutriment and clothing
and lodging proper for the protection of the instruments he employs.

It is therefore the first and fundamental interest of the laborer, that
the farmer should have a full incoming profit on the product of his
labor. The proposition is self-evident; and nothing but the malignity,
perverseness, and ill-governed passions of mankind, and particularly the
envy they bear to each other's prosperity, could prevent their seeing
and acknowledging it, with thankfulness to the benign and wise Disposer
of all things, who obliges men, whether they will or not, in pursuing
their own selfish interests, to