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SILK MANUAL, AND 



watered, even as the garden of the Lord," while 

 " Abram removed his tent to the plain of Mamre." 

 Thus, after a lapse of more than a thousand 

 years, the Hebrew race appears to have made but 

 little progress in the arts of civilization, and ex- 

 hibits only the migratory herdsman, and the in- 

 cipient efforts of the agriculturist. So precarious 

 even were their means of subsistence, that their 

 most renowned chieftains were compelled " to go 

 down into Egypt and dwell there, because there 

 was a grievous famine in the land." 



Egypt! now for the first time n)entioned by the 

 sacred historian. What vivid reminiscences does 

 that name call up. Egypt! the birthplace of sci- 

 ence, the cradle of the arts, the wonder of antiqui- 

 ty, the paragon of nations. A country and a 

 people which have been subjects of the deepest 

 interest, and the most exciting inquiry, from the 

 time of Joseph to the travels of Herodotus, and 

 from the visit of Diodorus to the learned researches 

 of Champollion. At the talismanic name of Egypt 

 the ponderous gates of all past time are throwti 

 open, and how fresh, clear, and palpable does the 

 whole history of the world unfold before us. — 

 For a long succession of ages, it was the focus of 

 knowledge, and at the same time the centre of 

 that intellectual radiance, which lighted onward 

 the nations of the earth, in their march from bar- 

 barism to refinement. There were nurtured the 

 vast tribes of Israel, — there were they trained to 

 fulfil the high destinies which awaited their mi- 

 raculous Exodus. From thence went forth that 

 wonderful nation, — those chosen people of God, 

 whose present existence, whose language, faith, 

 and identity of character, is a perpetual testimony 

 of the prophets, and of the truth of those revela- 

 tions, which constitute the religion we profess. 



Egypt! who can hear that word without being 

 excited ? It seems to embrace the entirety of the 

 past. What throngs of ideas, — what multitudes 

 of events, rush upon the memory, — what nms- 

 tering conceptions does the aroused imagination 

 -embody forth! The gorgeous courts of the Pha- 

 raohs, the conquests of Sesostris, the disastrous 

 invasion of Cambyses, the triumphal march -of 

 Alexander, the splendid reigns of the Ptolemys, 

 Pompey's tragic death, the victories of Ctesar, the 

 fate of Mark Anthony, the devastations of the 

 Saracens, the Ottoman subjugation, and the bat- 

 tles of Napoleon, all pass in rapid review, like the 

 ^agic pageantry of an illuminated scene. 



%i was on the banks of the Nila, that the moral 

 powers of man were first and most successfully 

 developed. There were laid the deep and broad 

 foundations of an empire, which surpassed all 

 others in the extent of its power, in the range of 

 commercial enterjirise, in the number and gran- 

 deur of its cities, the magnitude and elegance of 

 its palaces and triumphal monuments, — in wealth, 



intelligence, and the arts, — in all that reflects 

 glory on a people, and gives eternal lustre to na- 

 tions. There, too, was established the dominion 

 of Agriculture ; there she commenced her reign ; 

 and yet how long was that mighty kingdom wrapt 

 in obscurity, until revealed in the ever-interesting 

 and instructive tale of that adventurous shepherd 

 boy, Israel's darling son. Then, indeed, does it 

 burst forth with imposing magnificence, and the 

 holy annals are filled with its importance, and the 

 gigantic influence which it possessed over all the 

 nations of the East. Subsequently we are very 

 exactly instructed, by both Greek and Roman au- 

 thors, as to its vast agricultural resources ; and the 

 accurate delineations on the still existing tombs of 

 the kings, confirm their glowing accounts of the 

 importance in which the cultivation of the earth 

 was held, as well as the perfection to which it had 

 attained, from the well tilled field of the husband- 

 man, to those superb gardens, which embellished 

 the princely establishments in the environs of 

 Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis. 



By a long matured theory and practical systgm 

 of culture, every foot of land was reclaimed, fitim 

 the bordering deserts, which the fertilizing waters 

 of the Nile could be made to irrigate. Thus the 

 luxuriant valley of that majestic river, in the total- 

 ity of its lengthened course, was covered with the 

 rich and various products of rural industry, and 

 not only furnished the whole subsistence of a nu- 

 merous native population, but was rendered for 

 centin-ies the garden and granary of the world. 



From Egypt, civilization gradually extended 

 along the shores of the Mediterranean, the Archi- 

 |)elago, and Euxine ; and Phoenicia, Judea, Greece, 

 Carthage and Rome, with their numerous colonies, 

 became each distinguished for their progress in 

 intellectual attainments, and whatever tends to 

 give dignity to man, or glory to an empire. — 

 There were cultivated in a pre-eminent manner, 

 the useful and ornamental arts, and none claimed 

 more attention, or were carried to greater perfec- 

 tion, than those connected with the tillage of the, 

 earth. In the march of their victorious armies, 

 letters, and their ever constant and inseparable 

 companion, agriculture, were extended over north- 

 ern Africa, and through Asia Minor, Spain, Gaul, 

 and Germany, to the distant isles of Britain. 



In each of those nations, the cultivation of the 

 earth was the most honorable of all pursuits. — 

 The Egyptians were so fully sensible of its im- 

 portance, that its introduction was ascribed to the 

 God of their idolatry ; and the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans dedicated teit)ples, and erected statues to the 

 numerous divinities of their mythology, who pre- 

 sided over its various departments. As ear y as 

 the time of Homer, Hesiod, and subsequently 

 Xenophon, Vvith many of his eminent countrymen, 

 wrot« on rural affairs. The Carthagenians, in the 



