II.] AND SORTS OF CORN. 



the tops of the ears of wheat, barley, or rye ! 

 But when I came to see the topping of the corn in 

 America, and heard the upper part of the plant 

 called the corn-top^ I saw that it must always have 

 been the nm\Q^v?>di\ practice to " cut off the tops of 

 the corn" in all the countries where it had been 

 cultivated, and to leave standing the stalk and the 

 ears ; and, as to the text, which says,' " cut off 

 like the tops of the ears of the corn,'^ I ascribed 

 the error to the circumstance, that the transla- 

 tors had, like myself, been born and bred in a 

 country where corn was not grov/n ; and that they 

 had not had the good fortune to be travellers. 

 They knew that the tojjs of wheat, barley, and 

 rye, were the ea7'S ; and, they could not believe, 

 that an inspired writer would have compared the 

 wicked to the ears of wheat. They, therefore, 

 thought it better to compare them to the " tops 

 of the ears,'' though their readers were still left 

 to be surprised and puzzled on the subject. 



18. I found a fourth text of Scripture to puzzle 

 me even more than ail these. In Leviticus, 

 chap, ii., ver. 14, 1 had read an injunction to offer, 

 as a " meat offering of first fruits unto the Lord, 

 " green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn 

 '' beaten out of full ears." These last words which 

 I have put in italics must be an interpolation ; 

 for, how could they beat the grain out of green 

 ears ? And how could the ears be full if they were 



