AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 483 



ancient countries. Their former grandeur is attested by archi- 

 tectural remains that the sore eyed descendant of Assur and Nim- 

 rod has scarcely life enough left to wonder at. The present race 

 are nomadic^ while their ancestors were eminently agricultural, as 

 the remains of their extensive works for irrigation prove. Egypt 

 was known within the historic period as the granary of the world, 

 producing corn and pulse in plenty. It is to this period of her 

 history that her great works of art are ascribed. 



Now no Pythagoras need caution his disciples in regard to the 

 dietetical properties of pulse, for Egypt "cannot raise white beans." 

 Homer speaks of bread-corn, or wheat and barley, as furnishing 

 substance for his heroes and forage for their horses; and there is 

 no doubt if they were thus fed that the men were brave and the 

 horses were noble. 



It is much to bo regretted that history should have been so 

 much absorbed generally in the startling and tragic acis of man 

 as to pay but little attention to their domestic condition. As far 

 as we have evidence it seems that " not only do Ceres and Minerva 

 journey together, but Mars is found with them." The military 

 glory of Spain was based on a prosperous agriculture, and her 

 present gloomy condition is the result of the prostration of her 

 agricultural interests. The Saracens built extensive works of 

 irrigation in that country which the Moors completed and extended. 

 In the late Crimean war it is well kndwn that the French arrange- 

 ments secured the soldier a plentiful amount of bread while the 

 English soldier was scantily supplied. France took a common 

 sense view of the thing, acknowledging the relation between glory 

 and the belly. Bull could'nt think it amounted to so much. 

 Crapeau was generally in luck while Bull would have been if 

 something had only been a little different. The Russian soldiery 

 carried in their knapsacks a rough hard kind of bread and fought 

 as well as they might on such food. Take all together it was only 

 by supplying the armies with flour and meat by commerce that 

 another great battle was fought in the East. 



The pictorial representations, on stone and paper, from the 

 ancient countries of the East, show us that the art of the baker 

 was held in high estimation there. The construction of an oven 



