Book I. AGRICULTURE OF ANTIQUITY. 5 



Property* in land was recognised, the same grains cultivated, and the same domestic 

 animals reared or employed ; some led a wandering life and dwelt in tents like the 

 Arabs ; and others dwelt in towns or cities, and pursued agriculture and commerce like 

 the fixed nations. It is reasonable indeed, and consistent with received opinions, that this 

 should be the case ; for admitting the human race to have been nearly exterminated at the 

 deluge, those who survived that catastrophe would possess the more useful arts, and 

 general habits of life of the antediluvian world. Noah accordingly is styled a husband- 

 man, and is said to have cultivated the vine and made wine. In little more than three 

 centuries afterwards, Abraham is stated to have had extensive flocks and herds, slaves of 

 both sexes, silver and gold, and to have purchased a family sepulchre with a portion of 

 territory around it. Isaac his son, during his residence in Palestine, is said to have sown 

 and reaped a hundred fold. Corn seems to have been grown in abundance in Egypt ; 

 for Abraham, and afterwards Jacob, had recourse to that country during times of famine. 

 Irrigation was also extensively practised there, for it is said ( Gen. xiii. 1 0. ) that the plain 

 of Jordan was watered everywhere, even as the garden of the Lord, the land of Egypt. 

 Such is the amount of agricultural information contained in the writings of Moses, from 

 which the general conclusion is, that agriculture, in the East, has been practised in all or 

 most of its branches from time immemorial. The traditions of other countries, however, 

 as recorded by various writers, ascribe its invention to certain fabulous personages; as 

 the Egyptians to Osiris; the Greeks to Ceres and Triptolemus; the Latins to Janus ; the 

 Chinese to Chin -hong, successor of Fo-hi. 



Sect. I. Of the Agriculture of Egypt. 



8. The origin of agriculture has been sought by modern philosophers in natural cir- 

 cumstances. Man in his rudest state, they consider, would first live on fruits or roots, 

 afterwards by hunting or fishing, next by the pasturage of animals, and lastly, to all of 

 these he would add the raising of corn. Tillage, or the culture of the soil for this pur- 

 pose, is supposed to have been first practised in imitation of the effects produced by the 

 sand and mud left by the inundations of rivers. These take place more or less in every 

 country, and their effects on the herbage which spontaneously spring up among the de- 

 posited sand and mud must at a very early period have excited the attention of the coun- 

 tryman. This hypothesis seems supported by the traditions and natural circumstances 

 of Egypt, a country overflown by a river, civilised from time immemorial, and so 

 abundant in corn as to be called the granary of the adjoining states. Sir Isaac Newton 

 and Stillingfleet accordingly, considered that corn was first cultivated on the banks of the 

 Nile. Sir Isaac fixes on Lower Egypt ; but as Herodotus and other ancient Greek 

 writers assert that that country was once a marsh, and as Major Rennel in his work on 

 the geography of Herodotus is of the same opinion, Stillingfleet (Works, vol. ii. 524.) 

 considers it more probable that the cultivation of land was invented in Upper Egypt, and 

 proceeded downwards according to the course of the Nile. 



S. The situation and natural phenomena of Upper Egypt, Stillingfleet considers, 

 rendered it fitter for the invention of cultivation than the low country ; " for while 

 Lower Egypt was a marsh, formed by the depositions of the Nile, the principal part of 

 Upper Egypt was a valley a few leagues broad, bounded by mountains, and on both sides 

 declining to the river. Hence it was overflowed only for a certain time and season ; the 

 waters rapidly declined, and the ground, enriched by the mud, was soon dry, and in a 

 state fit to receive seed. The process of cultivation in this country was also most obvious 

 and natural ; for the ground being every year covered with mud brought by the Nile, 

 and plants springing up spontaneously aftf?r its recess, must have given the hint, that 

 nothing more was necessary than to scatter tU > seeds, and they would vegetate. Secondly, 

 the ground was prepared by nature for rec uving the seed, and required only stirring 

 sufficient to cover it. From this phenominon the surrounding nations learned two 

 things : first, that the ground before sowing should be prepared, and cleared from plants; 

 and secondly, that the mixture of rich mould and sand would produce fertility. What 

 is here stated may appear without foundation as to Upper Egypt ; because at present, in 

 the vicinity of Thebes, water is raised by art. But this objection is obviated by the tes- 

 timony of Dr. Pococke, who is of opinion that formerly Upper Egypt was overflowed, in 

 the same manner as Lower Egypt was afterwards, and is to this 

 day. " (StiUing feet's Life and Works, &c. ii. 524. ) 



10. The invention of agricultural implements, must have 

 been coeval with the invention of aration ; and accordmgly 

 they are supposed to have originated in Egypt. Antiquarians 

 are agreed, that the primeval implement used in cultivating 

 the soil, must have been of the pick kind. (fg. 2.) A 

 medal of the greatest antiquity, dug up at Syracuse, con- 

 tained an impression of such an instrument {Encyc. <f Gard. Us* 17.) i and its pro- 



B 3 



