248 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



The Nile, by overflowing and renewing the foil, made agricul- 

 ture, which in other countries is an art requiring much labour and 

 fkill, a matter of great eafe in Egypt: For, as Herodotus has told 

 us*, the farmer there, was not obliged to plough or dig the ground; 

 but afler the river was retired, he had no more to do, but to fow 

 his feed upon the wet mud, and then employ fwine to tread it in ; 

 and in this way he had a plentiful crop, which he faved himfelf 

 alfo the trouble of threflxing by treading the grain out with fwine. 



Another advantage the Egyptians had by the overflowing of the 

 river was, that they efcaped the reproach which the King of iEthi- 

 opia caft upon the Perfians, that they lived upon dung ; for having, 

 alked the Perfian ambafliadors upon what they lived, and being told 

 it was upon wheat, which was raifed among them, as among us, 

 from land dunged, he faid that it was no wonder that they lived fo 

 Ihort time, when they fed upon dung f : And it is certain, that all 

 the fruits of the earth muft have in them more or lefs of the manure 

 by which they are raifed and nourifhed : And I have no doubt, but 

 that many difeafes are produced among us and other nations in Eu- 

 rope by our being fed in that way ; and I hold it to be one rea- 

 fon of the great health of the Egyptians, that all the corn they 

 ate was not raifed from dung, but from new earth brought down 

 by the river. Whereas, we feed upon fruits raifed in our fields and 

 gardens from the dung of other animals; and thofe, who live in great 

 towns, feed upon fruits^ a great part of which is raifed from their 

 own dung ; for that is a principal part of the manure of fields and 

 gardens near to a great city. Now^ we can hardly imagine a food 

 more unnatural than this. 



And not only did the river produce the moft plentiful crops with- 

 out any culture,, but it abounded fo much with filh, and with herbs, 



whicJi 

 * lib. 2. cap. 14. t Herodotus, Lib. 3. cap. 22. 



