Chap.II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 301 



duced. Things therefore were come to the fituation meationed by 

 Virgil, 



cum jam glandes atque arbuta facrac 



Dcficerent fylvae, et vidlum Dodona negaret. 



Georgic. Lib. I. V. 148, 



And it was then proper that fome herbs of a better kind fhould be 

 difcovered, upon the feeds of which men might live. 



This difcovery was made in Egypt, which, as it enjoys fuch ad- 

 vantages of climate, foil, and fo fine a river, is, by its nature, the 

 moft fruitful country, I believe, in the world. Of the herbs difco- 

 vered in Egypt I have fpoken at fome length in Vol. IV. of this 

 work *, where I have ftiown that the Egyptians not only difcover- 

 ed and cultivated wheat and barley, but a finer grain than either, 

 which they called ^ea, and the Greeks o^.vfov. It was a grain fo 

 much finer than either wheat or barley, that the better fort of peo- 

 ple would eat the bread made of it only. Thefe plants muft have 

 been the natural growth of the country, and for any thing we know, 

 of that country only : So that to Egypt we not only owe the art of 

 agriculture, but the materials which it employs : For I have Ihovvn, 

 in the pafTagc above quoted, that the feeds of thefe plants were brought 

 from Egypt to other countries; firft to Greece, and then to other parts 

 of the world, and particularly to Italy, where the Egyptian zea was 

 cultivated, and produced that grain which the Romans called /hr. 

 And the Egyptians, as I have faid, taught us not only to mdikt food 

 of the grains 1 have mentioned, but alfo drink of them as well as 

 of the juice of the grape : So that the Egyptians invented not only 

 the art of agriculture, and of making bread, but alfo the art oi fer- 

 mentation^ and likewife of malting^ by which they made ale or beer 

 of their grain. 



But 



• Book 11. Cliap. IV. 



