: his field;" and "Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh." When the sons of Israel had conquered the land of promise, it was, by the divine command, surveyed and divided by lot; first among the twelve tribes and then the portion of each tribe was laid out in separate inheritances, according to the number of the families composing the tribe: and thus every man in the nation had his field, which he was directed to cultivate for the support of himself and his family. To prevent mistake and litigation, these fields were marked off by stones set up on the limits, which could not be removed without incurring the wrath of heaven. The divine command, in relation to this matter, runs in these terms: "Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's land mark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess "* Their inheritances were again divided into parts, which the Hebrews distinguished by the name of portions, or pieces of ground; and distributed by measure into acres. The distribution of a field into acres, is ascertained by a passage in the first book of Samuel, which is couched in these terms: "And that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armour-bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plough."† The land of promise was distinguished by extraordinary fruitfulness: Jehovah was pleased, in a special manner, to bless the springing of the earth, and to crown the year with his goodness: yet this peculiar favour did not supersede the vigilance and activity of the husbandman. The prophet Isaiah intimates, that his countrymen began their operations in the field by erecting fences, and gathering out the stones, and clearing away other incumbrances: "My well beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill; and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof." Thorns, or other useless plants, were either dug up by the roots, or consumed by fire. "For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, break up your fallow * Deut. xix. 14. +1 Sam. xiv. 14. + Isa. v. 1, 2. ground, and sow not among thorns."* Rich as the soil of Palestine certainly was, it refused at not ime the aid of manure, which travellers and historians tell us is the case in some countries This fact we discover in several parts of Scripture, but particularly in the parable of the barren fig tree: "Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then shall we cut it down."† Thus, we find the Jewish farmer, however highly favoured, was obliged to follow the rule which Virgil prescribed to his countrymen, to saturate the parched soil with rich dung, and scatter sordid ashes upon the exhausted lands: "arida tantum Ne saturare fimo pingui pudeat sola: neve Geor. b. 1. l. 79. The ground, as in our own country, was broken up with the plough. The Syrian plough, which was probably used in all the regions around, is a very simple frame, and commonly so light, that a man of moderate strength, might carry it in one hand.‡ With such an imperfect instrument, the Syrian husbandman can do little more than scratch the surface of his field, or clear away the stones or weeds that encumber it, and prevent the seed from reaching the soil. The ploughshare is a "piece of iron, broad, but not large, which tips the end of the shaft." So much does it resemble the short sword used by the ancient warriors, that it may, with very little trouble, be converted into that deadly weapon; and when the work of destruction is over, reduced again into its former shape, and applied to the purposes of agriculture. In allusion to the first operation, the prophet Joel summons the nations to leave. their peaceful employments in the cultivated field, and buckle on their armour: "Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears "{ This beauiful image, the prophet Isaiah has reversed, and applied to the establishment of that profound and + Russel's Hist. of Aleppo. § Joel iii. 10. * Jer. iv, 3. Luke xiii. 8. 24 lasting peace which is to bless the church of Christ, in the latter days: "And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."* In similar strains, the Roman poets sang: 66 squalent abductis arva colonis, Et curve rigidum falces conflantur in ensem." Geor. 1. l. 507. "Saracula cessabent; versique in pila ligones; Facta que de rastri pondere cassis erat.' Ovid, Fast. 1. 7. 697. The plough used in Syria, is so light and so simple in its construction, that the husbandman is under the necessity of guiding it with great care, bending over it, and loading it with his own weight, else the share would glide along the surface without making any incision. His mind should be wholly intent on his work, at once to impress the plough into the ground, and direct it in a straight line. "Let the ploughman," said Hesiod, attend to his charge, and look before him; not turn aside to look on his associates, but make straight furrows, and have his mind attentive to his work." And Pliny: "Unless the ploughman stoop forward" to press his plough into the soil, and conduct it properly," he will turn it aside." To such careful and incessant exertion, our Lord alludes in that declaration: No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven."+ The furrows are extremely shallow, but so remarkably straight, although of great length, that one would imagine they had used a line in tracing them. This allusion seems to be involved in the Psalmist's complaint: "The ploughers ploughed upon my back, and made long their furrows."‡ The plough was sometimes used in measuring land, by the Greeks and orientals; for Homer, speaking of contending chiefs, has this expression: Isa, ii! 4. Αλλ' ότε δη ς απεην, όσσον τ' επίουρα πελονται † Luke ix. 62, Calmet, vol. 3. Il. b. 10. 351. 1 #Psa. cxxix. 3. But when they were now so distant from each other, as the furrows of two teams of mules." To explain the comparison, it is necessary to state, that the Grecians did not plough in the manner now in use. They first broke up the ground with oxen, and then ploughed it more lightly with mules. When they employed two ploughs in a field, they measured the space they could plough in a day; and at the two ends of that space, set their ploughs, which proceeded towards each other. This intermediate space was constantly fixed, but less in proportion for two ploughs of oxen than for two of mules, because oxen are slower, and the toil more in a field that has not yet been turned up; whereas, mules are naturally swifter, and make greater speed in a ground that has already had the first ploughing.* We discover a trace of the same custom in the first book of Samuel, where the historian, describing the valorous exploit of Jonathan, observes: "And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armour-bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were a half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plough."+ After the operation of ploughing was finished, they were under the necessity of breaking the clods in clayey soils, and levelling the surface. This treatment, Virgil recommends to the cultivators of the age in which he flourished. He too, said the didactic bard, greatly improves the lands, who breaks the sluggish clods with harrows, and drags ozier hurdles over them; and he also, who, after the plain has once been torn, again breaks through the land that raises up its ridges, turning the plough across, and vexes it with frequent exercise, and rules his lands imperiously. It was in the same way, that the Israelitish husbandman subdued the stubborn soil of his native land: "Doth the ploughman plough all day?" rather, plough continually, saith Isaiah," doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face of it, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley and the rye, in their place ?”§ +1 Sam. xiv. 14. Georg. b. 1. I. 94. * Dacier. $ Isa. xxviii. 24 And shall the God of wisdom be always uttering his judgments, and warning his people; shall he be always proceeding with his work, and never bring it to a conclusion? No: He will at length execute his threatenings, and correct them for their sins; but not with indiscriminate severity: he will punish them in wisdom, and in proportion to their strength, not that they may be destroyed, but reclaimed from their vicious courses. "For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him." That we owe the knowledge of agriculture, the most useful, and the most necessary of all human sciences, to the suggestion of heaven, is a sentiment which has been entertained by all nations. Virgil ascribes it to the divine Intelligence, that mortals exchanged Chaonian masts, for fattening ears of corn, and mingled Acheloian draughts, or pure water, with the invented juice of the grape : "vestro si munere tellus Geor. b. 1. 2. 7. Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista, Poculaque inventis Acheloïa miscuit uvis." This idea was also cherished by the Greeks, inculcated by their philosophers, and sung by their poets.* The Jewish writers, instructed by the pen of inspiration, are not less clear and precise; with this important difference, that they ascribe the art to the suggestion of the true God: "The Most High hath ordained husbandry," saith the son of Sirach, Eccles. vii. 15. The light of nature thus accords with the dictates of revelation, in ascribing to the goodness of the only wise God, the knowledge of this important art. It is he who gives the husbandman that wisdom and discretion, activity and perseverance, which the successful prosecution of his business requires; he plants the inclination in his bosom; he imparts the delight which sweetens his unceasing toil; he crowns his exertions with success. Happy for the cultivator, were his eye continually directed to the source of all his blessings; were he disposed with filial reverence, to depend on the divine wisdom and goodness, and thankfully to * See Aratus ; ε δήπιον ανθροποίσι, &c. |