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 husbandman, to those superb gardens, which 

 embellished the princely establishments in the environs of 

 Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis. 



By a long matured theory and practical system of culture, 

 every foot of land was reclaimed, from 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 

 totality of its lengthened course, was covered with the rich 

 and various products of rural industry, and not only furnished 

 the whole subsistence of a numerous native population, but was 

 rendered for centuries the garden and granary of the world. 



From Egypt, civilization gradually extended along the shores 

 of the Mediterranean, the Archipelago, and Euxine ; and Phoe- 

 nicia, Judea, Greece, Carthage and Rome, with their numerous 

 colonies, became each distinguished for their progress in intel- 

 lectual attainments, and whatever tends to give dignity to man, 

 or glory to an empire. There, were cultivated in a pre-em- 

 inent manner, the useful and ornamental arts, and none claimed 

 more attention, or were carried to greater perfection, than those 

 connected with the tillage of the earth. In the march of their 

 victorious armies, letters and their ever constant and insepa- 

 rable companion, agriculture, were extended over northern 

 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 importance, that its introduction was ascribed to 

 the God of their idolatry; and the Greeks and Romans dedi- 

 cated temples, and erected statues to the numerous divinities of 

 their mythology, who presided over its various departments. As 

 early as the time of Homer, Hesiod, and subsequently Xeno- 

 phon, with many of his eminent countrymen, wrote on rural 

 affairs. The Carthageniaiis, in the palmy days of their prosper- 

 ity and glory, considered the occupation of a husbandman, not 

 less meritorious than the profession of arms, exalted as was 

 the estimation in which that was held, by the warlike country- 

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