302 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



ness of western Syria, observes, " that it is to an 

 industry less harassed by predatory encroachments 

 than that of any other part of Syria, that the hills 

 of Lebanon owe those fine terraces, in long suc- 

 cession, which preserve the fertile earth; those well- 

 planted vineyards; those fields of wheat, raised by 

 the industrious hand of the husbandman; those plan- 

 tations of cotton, of olives, and of mulberries, which 

 present themselves everywhere in the midst of the 

 rocky steeps, and give a pleasing example of the 

 effects of human activity. The clusters of grapes 

 are enormous, and the grapes themselves as large as 

 cherries." 



One of the greatest blessings that can be conferred 

 upon any rude people (and it is a blessing which 

 will bring knowledge, and virtue, and peace, in its 

 train) is to teach them how to cultivate those vege- 

 table productions which constitute the best riches of 

 mankind. The traveller Burchell rendered such a 

 service to the Bachapins, a tribe of the interior of 

 Southern Africa. He gave to their chief a bag of 

 fresh peach stones, in quantity about a quart; "nor 

 did I fail," says the benevolent visitor of these poor 

 people, " to impress on his mind a just idea of their 

 value and nature, by telling him that they would pro- 

 duce trees which would continue every year to yield, 

 without further trouble, abundance of large fruit of a 

 more agreeable flavour than any which grew in the 

 country of the Bachapins." This is an interesting 

 example of how much good a right-minded and 

 active individual may do to his humbler brethren of 

 the human family. " Why have not every where 

 the names been preserved," says Humboldt, " of 

 those who, in place of ravaging the earth, have en- 

 riched it with plants useful to the human race?" 

 It is satisfactory to observe, however, that when men 

 are highly civilized, there is an elasticity in their 



