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His words are, ** Should any of your 
yeaders here flart an objection, and fay 
that eawen and yeaj? are different things, 
¥ requef that he will be fo good as to in- 
form me avbhence leaven firft originated ?” 
It is not without reluctance that I ven- 
ture to diflent from your learned Corre- 
fpondent on any fubje, and efpecially on 
ene with which I am perhaps not fuff- 
¢iently acquainted ; but, Sir, I do think 
that leaven and yeaft are different thiogs, 
and that they bear no relation whatever to 
each other. 
Dr. Carey afks, whence did Jeaven firft 
eriginate? We have not, I believe, any 
authentie documents which prove the pre- 
exe time when Jeaven was firit ufed. But 
#t does not appear, that the bread which 
Abraham prefented to the angels was 
leavened; for weread that Sarah baked it 
as foon as fhe had mixed the meal and the 
water, (Gen. chap. xviii. v. 6. 5) though 
the ufe of leaven was very ancient, and 
muft have been known before the time of 
Moles, who, when he prefcribed to the 
Hiraelites the manner of eating the pafchal- 
lamb, forbade them to make ufe of leaven- 
ed-bread, -(Exod. chap. xii. v. 15.) The 
fame leoiflator obferves, that when the 
Tfraelites departed from the land of Egypt, 
they ate unleavened-bread baked in the 
afhes, beeaufe, fays he, they were thrutt 
out of Egypt, and had no time allowed 
them to haven their bread. (Exod. chap. 
Mii. V. 39-) 
It would feem that the difcovery of 
keaven was owing entirely to chance, and 
that the idea of fuch a thing could not na- 
thrally enter into the mind of man; for it 
is not likcly that as foon as men difcover- 
ed the art of making bread, they found 
_ ent the feeret of raifing the patte. It is 
probable that the world was indebted for 
this fortunate difcovery to fome perfon, 
who, having kept a little of the old dough, 
mixed it with the new, without forefeeing 
the utility of this mixture. Dr. Carey, I 
prefume, will not deny, that dough kept 
for a fhort time, and afterwards mixed 
with the new paftc, will leaven the bread. 
Af he does, I can affure kim, that in many 
parts of the county of Cumberland they 
ufe what thev call brown-bread, made of 
bariey, and fermented with fome old 
dough, which had been kept for that pur- 
pofe, but which needs not be older than 
ten or tweive days. 
the manner in which they anciently lea- 
vened their bread, appears from the fol- 
lowing paflages of Hcly Writ :—** Know 
ye not that a@ Uittle leaven leavenett the 
whole lurp. Parge out, therefere, the o/d 
Mr. Robinfon'on Leaven and Yeaft. 
That this was alfo 
[May J, 
leaven, that ye may be 2 new ump, as ye 
are unleavened.’—** The kingdom of 
heaven is like unto /eaven, which a wo- 
man took and hid in three meafures of 
meal, till rhe whole was leavened.’— 
Is it not then evident, that leaven and 
yeaft are different things, and that they 
bear no relation toeach other? . : 
To the information afforded by Dr. 
Carey on the fubject of malt-liquors, al- 
low me to add, that Diodorus Siculus, 
(lib. i.) informs us, that, according to 
tradition, Ofiris, for the fake of the people 
whofe countries produced no wine, in- 
vented a liquor, made of barley and water, 
which was not inferior to wine either in 
ftrength or flavour. This, it muft be 
confefivd, is an exa& defcription of beer 
or ale. Fhe fame author alfo fays, (lib. 
iv.) that Bacchus taught the Greeks to 
compole, with water and barley, a liquor, 
which, for ftrength and fweetnefs, ap- 
proached towine. Ovid, {peaking of the 
meeting which Ceres, who was exhaufted 
with wearinefs, kad with an old woman 
named Baubo, fays, that the goddefs hav- 
ing requetted fome water, the old woman 
prefented her with a liquor which the had . 
made of dried grain: = - Be 
— lymphamque roganti~ 
Dulce dedit, tofta quod coxerat ante polenta. 
Though it would feem that thefe avu- 
thors, by their Gelcriptions, mean beer 
fome doubts may be entertained with re- 
{peét to the knowledge of that liquor be- 
ing fo ancient in Greece as they fay.—- 
Homer, who feems fond of defcribing the 
cuftoms and ulages of his country, never 
once mentions beer in all his writings.—= 
Did this omiflion of the poet proceed from 
defign ? or, rather, is it not a proof that 
in his time beer was not ufed ? 
Notwithftanding the difficulty which 
Dr. Carey fuppotes the Egyptians mutt 
have experienced in preventing the 
liquor from continuing to ferment beyond 
the neceffary time in fo warm a climate, 
or from fermenting anew after it had un- 
dergone the vinous fermentation toa fuffi- 
cient degree, it appears that beer was the 
moft common drink of the greateft part of 
Egypt. (Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 77.——Diod. 
Sicul. lib. i—Strab. lib. xvii.) 
In fome parts of the North of Eng- 
land, the bufhel.of barley is equal to 
eight pecks of Winchetter-meaiure.— 
This, perhaps, may in fome degree obvi- 
ate the difficulty which appears from its 
being mentioned in the ** Northumber- 
land Houfhold book,” that twelve gal- 
lons of beer were made fromevery bufh=l 
of malt. But if we adopt this method of 
fciving 
