333 



3. The cultivation of the Ccrealia, which, according' to the 

 philosopliical theory, was an invention of civilized man, and the 

 result likewise of ages of experiment, — the author asserts to be 

 an assumption without the shadow of foundation. He proved, 

 from recorded facts, that the cultivated grains are nowhere found 

 growing in a wild state to any useful extent ; that they die out 

 in a very few years when left to the care of nature alone ; that 

 their existence depends upon their continued cultivation, and that 

 their cultivation was known to the progenitors of the human 

 race. 



The author considers himself to have established these proposi- 

 tions, 1. That man was at his creation a civilized being, en- 

 dowed with all the physical and intellectual powers necessary to 

 his state as a moral and intellectual agent; 2. That the domestic 

 animals were created for his use, and obedient to his will from 

 the beginning ; 3. That the cultivation of the Cerealia was 

 the earliest occupation of the human race ; 4. That prior 

 to the Deluge cities were founded and many of the useful arts 

 practised ; and, 5. That the survivors of the Deluge started 

 with all the knowledge of their predecessors, the possession of 

 the domestic animals, and the grains necessary to their processes 

 of agriculture. 



In place of the supposed gradation from savage to civilized 

 life, the author asserts, from the history and monuments of all 

 ages and nations, that the general tendency of the race is to de- 

 generate from a civilized to a barbarous state of society. And 

 that the desolation of the mightiest kingdoms and republics of 

 antiquity, — their ruined cities and neglected fields, — teach the 

 lesson, that neither science nor art, neither philosophy nor re- 

 ligion, has hitherto been effective in stopping this downward 

 progress, — this descent to barbarism and savage life. 



The following Donations were presented : — 



The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, and the Prize-Essays and 

 Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of 



Scotland, for March 1841 Bi/ the Highland and Agricultural 



Socict}/. 



On the Constitution of the Resins. Parts 4 and 5. By James F. 

 W. Johnston, Esq., A.M., F.R.S Bif the Author. 



