was no property in land: all the country, was open and common to any occupier; and no one assumed to himself a property in the soil, or considered as his own, the produce of any particular spot.

26. In Africa, among the native Americans, and in most parts of Asia, there exists to this day, no property in the land; hence, in those countries, there is little cultivation; and subsistence is precarious; notwithstanding the fertility of the soil, and the genial character of the climates.

27. The recognition and protection of property in the soil, is the basis of industry, plenty, and social improvement; and is, therefore, one of the most important steps in the progress of man, from the savage, to the civilized state.

28. As soon as any man could call a spot of ground his own, and could secure to his family the produce of it; he would carefully cultivate, sow, and plant it; knowing that he should reap the reward of his labour in the season of harvest. 29. Countries, however, in general, lie open; with nothing but banks and ditches to divide the land of every husbandman: but in all civilized countries, each separate farm is divided from others by hedges and fences; and the farms themselves, are sub-divided into small enclosures.

30. In France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and most other nations, the land still remain unenclosed, in large open fields; and those countries in consequence, present a dreary appearance.

31. Enclosures greatly improve the climate of a country, by protecting it from inclement winds; they pleasantly sub-divide the labours of the far

mer; and, by restraining the exercise of cattle, they occasion them to get fat much sooner.

32. Farmers are called arable farmers, when they are chiefly employed in raising corn and grain; and pasture or grass farmers, when they are engaged in rearing and fattening sheep, and other live stock.

33. Farms vary in size, from fifty to one thousand acres. Arable farms are generally smaller than those employed in pasture, or grazing. Those, from one to two hundred acres are the most beneficial to the occupiers and the public.

34. Soils are divided into clayey, loamy, chalky, sandy, gravelly, peaty, and moory. The clayey and loamy are called stiff or strong soils; and the sandy and gravelly, light soils.

35. Soils are barren, when they consist of too much of one kind of material, do not hold moisture, or are too shallow. They are fertile, when they contain a due mixture of several primitive earths with vegetable and animal matter.

36. To render a barren soil fertile, it requires to be frequently turned up to the air, and to have manures mixed with it; which manures consist of animal dungs, decayed vegetables, lime, marl, sweepings of streets, &c.

37. In cultivating the soil, the chief implements of the gardener are the spade, the hoe, and the mattock; and of the farmer, the plough, the harrow, the roller, the scythe, and the sickle..

38. As a succession of the same crops tends to impoverish the soil, a rotation of different crops

is necessary. Potatoes, grain, and white crops,. are exhausting; but, after them, the soil is ameliorated by tares, vetches, turnips, and green or covering crops.

39. On stiff soils, clover, beans, wheat, cabbages, and oats, may be cultivated in succession; and on light soils, potatoes, turnips, peas, or barley, may succeed each other. The general rule, is one crop for man, and one for beast.

Obs.-This plan of varying the crops, is a new discovery. Formerly, land lay long in fallow; that is to say, was not worked every third or fourth year; but now, it is usual, by varying the crops, to get two or three crops in a year from the same soil, without its being exhausted; and fallowing is consequently, found to be unnecessary.-See Young's Farmer's Kalender.

40. Wheat is sown in September or October; but the spring-wheat is sown in March. It ripens in July and August, when it is reaped, housed, and threshed. After being ground at the mill and sifted, wheat forms flour: the flour mixed with water and yeast, and baked in an oven, becomes Bread.

41. Barley is sown in April and May it is made into malt, by being heated to a state of germination, and then broken in a mill. If the malt be infused in hot water, the infusion, with the addition of hops, may be fermented into beer, ale, and porter.

42. Oats are sown in February or March; when ground, they form oat-meal, and mixed with water, fermented and baked, the meal becomes oat-bread; but unground, they are the favourite food of horses. 43. There are other species of grain cultivated, as rye, peas, and beans. The former makes dark

5. Luxurious KNOWLEDGE includes abstract inquiries; as physics, metaphysics, many branches of experimental philosophy, heraldry, antiquities, and the dead languages.

*

6. Man is an animal endowed with powers of communication, memory, association, imitation, reflection and reasoning;-talents given him by his Maker; for the good use of which, he is accountable in a future state.

7. In his unimproved and uncivilized condition, man is naked, without habitation, without means of defence or offence, and possessed of no means of subsistence, besides the wild fruits and spontaneous produce of the earth.

8. To this day, many nations live naked in caverns under ground, perform no labour, and depend for their subsistence on the spontaneous products of the earth, and on the flesh of animals, which they destroy by simple stratagems.

Observation.-Such, are many of the nations of Africa; the inhabitants of New Holland; of many of the South Sea Islands; the natives of Hudson's Bay; and some of the Siberian nations; of whom, very curious particulars will be found in books of voyages and travels, and in Goldsmith's popular system of Geography.†

9. Till the Romans invaded England, the Britons lived naked, chiefly under ground, painting their bodies of various colours, bestowing no cultivation on the soil, and depending for subsistence

* This division of knowledge is unavoidably imperfect; and is little respected in the details of this work.

The observations are not to be committed to memory but to be read by the pupil to the tutor, or by the pupil alone.

on acorns, berries, and roots, and upon their skill and success in hunting and fishing.

Obs.-The people of England are indebted to the wild ambition of Julius Cæsar, for the introduction into these islands, of those arts of civilization, which had travelled from the Ganges into Persia, thence into Egypt, from Egypt to Greece, and from Greece into Italy: whence, by the lust of conquest, they were spread over Europe. In like manner, at this day, the English are the instruments, from the same causes, of reflecting back the arts of civilization, amended by a true religion, to the banks of the Ganges; and of disseminating the same blessings, to the Africans; the Americans; and the insulated people of the South Sea Islands.

10. The Romans introduced among the Britons, 'all the arts and knowledge which they had themselves received from the Greeks; and laid the foundation of that social state, in which we find ourselves in England, after the lapse of nearly two thousand years.

Obs. To take a view of knowledge, as it has extended itself from the most barbarous and uncultivated ages, down to this age of literature, science and philosophy; and to render the whole, plain and familiar to young minds, and to the meanest capacities, are the objects of the present work.

II. Of the Simple Arts of Savage Life.

11. The arts of savage life were those which were possessed by the ancient Britons; and which are witnessed at this day, among all barbarous people. They include the arts of swimming unting, taking aim with missile weapons, and rocuring fire.

12. The art of swimming, depends first, in