July 28– “Of Agriculture” by Abraham Cowley (1650)

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July 28– “Of Agriculture” by Abraham Cowley (1650)

Summary:

Commentary: There's trancendentalist hipsters, and then there's, "life isn't pastoral enough in 1650" hipsters! Throw in some semi-relevant quotes (at least he translates the Latin) and you've got a great example of how faux-highbrow nostalgic ludditism hasn't changed in four centuries. 

We get this pull quote (evidently from Virgil):

To be a husbandman, is but a retreat from the city; to be a philosopher, from the world; or rather, a retreat from the world, as it is man’s, into the world, as it is God’s.

This feels backwards to me. Philosophy (as I like it) involves looking inward and deeper at the world, not retreating from it. 

The utility (I mean plainly the lucre of it) is not so great, now in our nation, as arises from merchandise and the trading of the city, from whence many of the best estates and chief honors of the kingdom are derived

I do love "I mean plainly the lucre of it" and would like to start using it.

But yeah, mostly just your standard "Farmers are divine in their purity" that we still get today.