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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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li velihood , the keeping of cattle . The human race , therefore , is already divided into two separate conditions , that of the agriculturist aud the herdsman- . . . _
It was to the sehool of nature the first man went > stud from her that he learnt all the useful arts of life . With attentive observation , he could not long remain ignorant of the arrangement
by which plants reproduce themselves . He saw nature herself sow and water ; lis imitative impulse awoke , and soon waut urged him to lend his arm to nature , and aid , by art , her spontaneous
productiveness . But it must not be supposed that the first agriculturist was at once a grower of corn , for which very great preparations are needful ; it being conformable to the progress of nature to advance from the simple to the
more complicated . Probably rice was one of the first grains cultivated by man , for nature invited him to this by its wild growth in India ; and the most ancient historians speak of its cultivation as one of the earliest arts
of agriculture . The man remarked that in a lasting drought plants wither , but that after rain , they rapidly revive . He remarked farther , that where an overflowing stream had left slime behind itj the fertility increased . lie availed himself of these discoveries ,
gave his plantations an artificial rain and brought slime for his field , when there was no river near to bestow it . He learnt to manure and to irrigate . More difficult appears the advance to the use of animals ; but here , as
every where , rnau began with what was natural and guiltless ; and contented himself , perhaps for ages , with the milk of the creature , before he laid his hand upon its life . Doubtless it was his mother ' s milk that allured him to try the use of the animal ' s . No
sooner had he become acquainted with this new sustenance than he secured it to hiujself for ever . To have a supply ° f this food at all times ready , he could not leave it to chance to conduct to him at the moment of hunger * creature affording it . It occurred
^ 9 "W , therefore , to assemble around him a certain number of such animals to procure a herd ; these he must choose from among those who live in c napany , and transport them from a * tete of wild freedom into one of ser-
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vitude and peaceful rest 3 that is , he must tame them . Before he ventured on those of wilder habits , surpassing
him in weapons and in strength , he inade an experiment on those inferior to himself in force , and endowed with less native ferocity . He herded sheep , therefore , more early than swine , oxeu and horses .
As soon as he had deprived his animals of their liberty , he was compel * led to support and provide for them himself . He became then a herds * man , and as long as society was small * nature offered his little herds food itk
abundance . He had no other trouble than to seek for one meadow , andl when fed off , to exchange it for another . The richest superfluity recompensed his light- toil , and the
produce of his labour was subject to no vicissitude of season or climate . Uniform enjoyment was the lot of the herdsman , freedom and gay indolence his character .
Altogether different was the situation of the husbandman . As a serf , he was chained to the ground he had planted , and , with the mode of life he adopted , had surrendered all freedom of residence . Anxiously must lie tend the precarious nature of the plant he
cultivated , and aid its growth by art and labour , whilst the other left his flocks to provide for themselves . Want of tools at first made every operation more difficult , and his hands were scarcely adequate alone . How toilsome must have been his mode of
existence , ere the ploughshare lights ened . it j ere he compelled the yoked steer to divide with him the labour ! The breaking up of the ground , the scattering the seed , the watering , the harvest , how many labours did all these include ; and how much even ^ ^^ h * ~— ¦ 1 — — " ~ — - — — - m - —r — —^ r- — y
after the harvest , ere the tediouslyearned fruit of his industry could be enjoyed ! How often must he guard his plantations , watch and fence them against the attacks of the wild bfeasts ; how frequently even defend them at the hazard of life ! And how insecure
at last was the produce of his tail , subject to the iafluence of tempests and seasons ! Ati overflowing stream , a falling hail , would suffice to rob him , when the goal seemed reached , and expose him to the sever ^ t want . Severe , therefore , unequal and precarious , was the lot of the agriculturist ,
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guided by the Clue of the Mosaic Record . v 409
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vo . xx . 3 a
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 409, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/25/
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