VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES 



USED FOR THE FOOD OF MAN. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE culture of the earth is a pursuit which in itself 

 offers a sufficient distinction, not only between man 

 and the inferior orders of animate creation, but also 

 between man while in his merely animal state, and 

 after he has become humanized by adopting the arts 

 of civilization. It is this pursuit which must, in fact, 

 precede, and be made the foundation for all other 

 useful and ennobling occupations, the spring 

 whence must flow, certainly, the greater part of 

 those reciprocal duties and affections which at once 

 form society, and render it the source of enjoyments. 

 That man who first, among a tribe of hunters or 

 fishers, sows a grain or plants a root, and thus brings 

 home the advantages of forethought to the ' busi- 

 ness and the bosoms' of his less provident fellows, 

 becomes their benefactor, not merely by pointing out 

 the means for avoiding the horrors of famine, and 

 for lessening that succession of miseries which must 

 attend upon a life of wandering, but also, by relieving 

 their minds from the selfish exigencies that previ- 

 ously attended every moment, affording thereby lei- 



VOL. xv. 1 



