6 



The proverbially fertile soil of Egypt enabled its inhabitants 

 every year to raise vast quantities of corn : and so highly was ag- 

 riculture esteemed among them, that they ascribed its invention 

 to their chief god, Osiris; and even paid divine honors to the 

 animals employed in cultivation, and to the products of the 

 earth. 



In India too, in ancient times, Bacchus was worshipped as the 

 inventor of planting vineyards, and other agricultural arts. 



The Persian kings also, once each month, laid aside the splen- 

 dors of royalty, and ate with their husbandmen. Agriculture 

 was incorporated into their religion; and it was one of their 

 maxims, that he who sows the ground with diligence, acquires 

 more religious merit, than by the repetition of ten thousand 

 prayers. 



The Phenicians or Philistines, and the Carthagenians, were 

 not unacquainted with agriculture : and Mago, a celebrated Car- 

 thagenian general, is said to have written twenty-eight books on 

 the subject, which were translated into Latin by command of the 

 Roman Senate. 



The ancient nations of Europe seem to have been much be- 

 hind the Asiatics in their acquaintance with the cultivation of the 

 soil ; for we find the early Grecians deriving their subsistence, 

 like the wild beasts, from roots, herbs, and acorns. 



The Athenians, however, ere long found that the bosom of 

 the earth was not made merely to tread upon. Their princes 

 recalled their subjects from predatory warfare to learn the 

 peaceful arts of husbandry. The other States of Greece soon 

 followed the example, and agriculture rose into a regular and 

 important art. Their first writer on the subject was Hesiod, 

 who embellished his work with the imagery and harmony of po- 

 etry. Zenophon, Democritus, Aristotle, Theophrastus and oth- 

 ers, employed their pens upon the same subject. 



The high regard in which agriculture was held among the 

 Romans is well known. Even their most illustrious Senators 

 and commanders, in the intervals of public duty, devoted them- 

 selves to its pursuits. Regulus requested to be recalled from his 

 command in Africa, that he might attend to the cultivation of 



