4 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



convictions, because, either way, it remains obvious that his 

 mind was at least inspired with that idea, and that if such an 

 idea was not divinely inspired, it, at all events, faithfully 

 represented the spirit and feeling of the times in which he 

 lived, 



" And God said, ' I have given you every herb bearing seed, which 

 is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit 

 of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat,' " 



wrote the old Jewish seer, lawgiver, historian, or whatever he 

 was ; and whether he wrote by God's direct command or not, 

 he nevertheless believed that the earth, with its abundance of 

 food, was given by a beneficent Creator for man's use and 

 enjoyment. 



Teibute of the Ancients to Agriculture 



He was, moreover, but a prefigurement of those who subse- 

 quently arose in other lands to offer their testimony to the 

 bountitulness of Mother Earth, and his words have been echoed 

 and re-echoed down the long vistas of the ages, awakening the 

 peoples of all lands to a deep sense of gratitude for the plenteous 

 gifts of Nature. Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Modes and 

 Persians, Greeks and Eomans, Chinese and Hindoos, have all 

 thankfully acknowledged the prodigality of the earth, and have 

 paid their tribute and rendered their homage, all in their own 

 way, to the Giver. 



The Egyptians laid their acknowledgments on the altars of 

 Isis ; the Greeks and Eomans sacrificed to Cybele and Ceres ; 

 while the Hebrews offered their first fruits of the earth to 

 Jehovah. The ancients, indeed, were never unmindful of the 

 bounteous gifts of Nature, and various were the means adopted 

 to show their gratitude. The earth, with its never-failing store 

 of benefactions, was regarded by them as the " gift of the gods," 

 demanding sacrifice and much celebration, and in their heathen 

 way they showed much devoutness in their worship of those 

 deities who were believed to cause the corn to grow and the 

 fruit to ripen. 



Ceres was especially respected because of her beneficence 

 to mankind in respect to the fruits of the earth, and her 

 worshippers were found in many parts of the pagan world in 

 all the ages of the past. 



Christian Offerings to Agriculture 



These ancient prototypes of a devout belief in the bene- 

 ficence of the great Giver have myriads of ibllowers in every 



