preparing corn for food, by the tedious process of beating it out of the husk, and grinding or triturating it into meal or flour. It is moreover a manifest assumption of the question to say that corn was the food of the first man; for * Ælian describing the most ancient food of the several nations he treats of, reports that in Argos they feed chiefly on pears, in Attica on figs, in Arcadia on acorns, whence the Arcadians were called by Lycophron Balanefagoi, or acorn eaters; and trees which bore acorns or masts, were in general termed Fagoi from Fago, to eat, (hence the Latin Fagus a beech); as in Latin “Esculi" from Esca food.

Adelung (cited in Mr Lawrence's Lectures), puts the matter in a newer and broader light, he says

As nature would not unnecessarily expose her first-born and unexperienced son to conflicts and dangers, the place of his early abode would be so selected that all his wants would be easily satisfied, and everything essential to the pleasure of his existence readily procured; he would be, in short, placed in a Paradise.

Such a country is found in Central Asia, between the 30o and 500 W. L. and 90° and 110° E. L. from Ferro, a spot which, in respect to height, can only be compared to the lofty Plain of Quito, in South America. From this elevation, of which the great desert of Cobi or Shamo is the vertical point, Asia sinks gradually towards all the four quarters. The great chains of mountain running in various directions arise from it, and contain the source of the great rivers which traverse this division of the globe on all sides. The Selunga, the Obi, the Lena, the Irtish, and the Yenisei, on the north; the Jaik, the Jihon, the Jemba, on the west; the Amuer, the Hoang Ho on the east; the Indus, Ganges, and Burhampooter, on the south.

If, he says, the globe were ever covered with water, this great table land must have first become dry, and have appeared like an island in the watery expanse. The cold and barren desert of Cobi would not indeed have been a suitable abode for the first people; but, on its southern declivity, we find Thibet, separated by high mountains from the rest of the world, and containing, within its boundaries, all varieties of air and climate. If severe cold prevailed on its snowy mountains and glaciers, a perpetual summer reigns in its valleys and well watered plains.

This is the native abode of rice, the vine, pulse, fruit, and all other vegetable productions from which man draws his nourishment. Here, too, all the animals are found wild, which man has tamed for his use, and carried with him over the whole earth :

* Var. Hist. lib. 3., chap. 39.

The cow, horse, ass, sheep, goat, camel, pig, dog, cat, and even the servicable rein-deer, his only attendant and friend in the very deserts of the frozen polar regions.

Close to Thibet, and just on the declivity of the great central elevation, we find the charming region of Kashmere, where great elevation converts the southern heat into perpetual spring, and where nature has exerted all her powers to produce plants, animals, and man, in the greatest perfection. No spot on the whole earth unites so many advantages. In none could the human plant have succeed so well without any care. This spot therefore, seems to unite all the characters of Paradise, and to be the most appropriate situation in Asia for the birth-place of the human race.

I will conclude this digression by reminding you of the description by Milton of the arrival of Satan in Paradise, for the purpose of working the fall of our first parents.

*"Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard
"Mount Amara, though this by some supposed
"True Paradise, under the Ethiop line

Of living creatures, new to sight and strange."
And again-

"For blissful Paradise,
Of God the garden was, by him in th' cast
Of Eden planted: Eden stretch'd her line
From Auran castward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,
Or where the sons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telassar: in this pleasant soil

His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd.”

In the absence of direct testimony, conjecture or probability can be our only guide. However, it seems probable to me at least, that the first Agricultural operations of man were confined to delving in the ground, for such roots as curiosity or hunger prompted him to taste, or such as he may have beheld to be the favourite repast of some animal, and consequently judged to be innocuous.

We learn that, at a very early period, there appears to have been a distribution of the rural operations. The pastoral and

* Paradise Lost.-Lib. iv. 1. 280.

† Lib. iv. 1. 208.

a tiller

gricultural duties were severally adopted by the two sons of Adam. Cain is described in general terms to have been “ of the ground;" while Abel collected a flock of the most inoffensive of quadrupeds, and domesticated the docile sheep.

After the succesion of about six generations, we arrive at the name of Jabal," who was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle." Thus, we observe the progressive advancement of man in his social condition-his flocks and herds supplied him with milk curds, and whey, and the occasional sacrifice of a lamb, a kid, or calf, in addition to the fruits and pulse afforded as the liberal donation of nature furnished him with the means of subsistence. And, singular to say, in those regions of the east inhabited by the nomadic tribes of Arabs, Kurds, and Turcomans, at this day, human life is supported without any greater exertion. His raiment was composed of the skins of his sheep, and after some ages, their fleeces were made to serve that purpose. His tent we may suppose to have been formed of the hides of his cattle; and being now sheltered from the inclemency of the seasons, and above the demands of actual want, his restless mind suggested several experiments to afford him additional comforts, and next to supply him with luxurious superfluities.

It is not a little curious to observe, that the first dawn of mechanical ingenuity should have presented itself in the fabrication of a musical instrument, invented perhaps by a shepherd, to relieve the tedious hours of his solitary employment: for Jubal, son of Lamech and Adah, is called "the father of all such as handle the harp and organ." The Greek term organ, signifies generally, a musical instrument. The first could not have been very complicated.

After this we are informed that Tubal Cain, son of Lamech and Zillah, was "an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." His attention might have been attracted by some one of the metals in the course of husbandry, when digging rather deeper than usual into the earth; yet, I apprehend, that mention of brass, although it occurs repeatedly in the Bible, * must be an error of the translators, and it probably should be rendered “copper,” of which Pliny enumerated the "regulare" or malleable ". coronarium" or plate, and "caldarium" or cast: for "brass," is not a

* Deut. chap. viii. v. 9.-Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. Job chap. xxviii. v. 2. -Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.

primitive metal, but an alloy of copper and zinc, united by mixing granulated copper with caladmine, (native carbonate of zinc) and charcoal; and this would not occur unless we adopt the possibility of such natural alchemy as is suggested by Milton.

*"In other part stood one who at the forge
Stood lab'ring two massy clods of iron and brass
Had melted, (whether found where casual fire
Had wasted woods, on mountain or in vale,
Down to the veins of earth, thence gliding hot
To some caves mouth, or whether washed by stream
From under ground), the liquid ore he drained

Into fit molds prepared."

However, we read of the metal in Homer, also translated brass: the weapons of some of his heroes being made of it, and the imaginative antiquarian, General Vallancy, rests one of his arguments for the Carthagenian origin of the Irish people on the similarity in the form and construction of the brazen swords found in Ireland and those found on the field of Cannæ, the scene of the memorable battle fought between Hannibal and the Romans, B. c. 216.

With respect to iron, it is not unworthy of remark, that the Peruvians, amongst the most skilful aboriginal people on either Continent of America, were unacquainted with its use, although the ore abounds in their country; and, while gold and silver, with various alloys, were applied by them to the most ordinary purposes. They adapted stone and copper to the fabrication of tools in common use; and by a very remarkable combination of copper and tin, in the proportion [according to Humboldt, who analysed some metalic implements, found in a silver mine, opened by the Incas, near Cuzco] of, copper, 0.94, tin, 0.6, they gave a hardness to the metal little inferior to steel, and were able to hew porphry, granite and the most durable marble.

Iron requires a tedious and ingenious process of smelting to reduce it from the ore,-a knowledge of which is not easily acquired by savage nations, whose usual substitutes are flint, quartz, obsidian, the Nephritic stone called jade, or the wood of some tree peculiar in its compactness; and it may be doubted whether mankind was not for some time acquainted with the familiar use of other metals before they acquired a knowledge of

iron.

*Paradise Lost.-Lib xi. v. 564.

Lucretius* bears testimony to this; and Ovid † in his poetical and metamorphical arrangement of the metallic eras, place that of iron last.

Before I proceed further, it may be well to observe, that we owe to the Art of Agriculture another proud distinction, that of having originated the ideas of the "rights of property."

For the earth, and all things therein, were, in the first instance, declared to be the general property of all mankind, exclusive of all other beings; and, while the human family was confined to but few individuals, each took from the public stock to his own use without molestation such things as his necessities required. These general notions of property were then sufficent to answer all the purposes of a primitive society; and had the human race continued in a state of such simplicity, would have continued to be sufficient.

The ground being in common, no part was the permanent property of any person in particular.

Whoever was in the occupation of any determined spot for rest, shade, or any other purpose, acquired for the time a sort of ownership therein, from which it would have been contrary to the law of nature to have dislodged him: But the right of possession lasted only as long as the act of possession continued; for the instant he quitted the use or occupation of the soil, another might seize it without injustice.

Thus, also, a vine or other tree might be said to be in common, as all men were equally entitled to its produce; yet, any individual, were he to gather the fruit for his own repast, might gain by the exercise of the labour exclusive property in the fruit.

When mankind increased in number, craft, and ambition, it became necessary to entertain conceptions of more permanent dominion, and to appropriate to individuals, not only the use but the very substance of the thing to be used, otherwise innumerable contentions must have arisen, and the good order of society would have been continually disturbed, while various persons contended who should get the first occupation of the same thing, or disputed who had actually gained it. The article of food was the most immediate call, and therefore demanded the earliest consideration; and the bodily labour expended on any thing, before *Posterius Ferri vis est, ærisque reperta;

Et prior æris erat quam Ferri cognitus usus

Quo facilis magis est natura et copia mar. LIBRARY

Lucretius.-Lib 1. v. 1294.

De duro est ultima ferro.

Ovid Met.-Lib 1. L. 127.

UNIVERSITY OF

CALIFORNIA.