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ture to a confide rable degree of perfection, and 

 foon reduced ir to an art. 



Hesiod, who is generally thought to have been 

 contemporary with Homer, was the firft we know 

 of among the Greeks who wrote on this intereft- 

 ing fubjecl. According to the cuftom of the 

 Oriental Authors, he wrote in poetry, and embel- 

 lilhed his poem with luxuriant defcription and 

 fublime imagery. He calls his poem <c Weeks and 

 €i Days" becaufe Agriculture requires exact obfer- 

 vations of times and feafons. 



Xenophon has alfo, is his GEconomics, re- 

 marked, that Agriculture is the nurfing mother 

 of the arts. For, fays he, <c where Agriculture 

 * fucceeds profperoufly, there the Arts thrive; 

 <c but where the earth necefTarily lies unculti- 

 4( vated, there the other arts are deftroyed." 



The other eminent Greek writers upon Agri- 

 culture were, Democritus of Abdera, Socra- 

 ticus, Archytas, Tarentinus, Aristotle, and 

 Tiieophrastus, from whom the art received 

 considerable improvements; as it did alfo from 

 Hieron, Epicharmus, Philometor, and At- 



ALUS.* 



* Agricult. Didlioiury. 



The 



