82 . Resemblance between the Chinese and. Egyptians. [Book I.

husbandman’ resembled Osiris. He began to reign 2S32, B. C. or nearlyfive huridred years before the deluge ; and it is in imitation of this antedi-luvian monarch, that the emperors at the present day, plough a portion ofland with their own hands, and sow different kinds of grain, once a year.Such it appears was also the practice of Egyptian monarchs, for emblema-tical representations of them breaking up the soil with a hoe, are foundamong the sculptures. Osiris instructed them in agriculture, and taughtthem the value and practice of Irrigation. He confined the Nile withinbanks, and formed sluices to water the land. On these accounts was heidolized after death, and worshipped as a god ; and the ox, which he taughtthem to. employ in the cultivation of the soil, was selected to personatehim. In accordance with this custom, the Israelites made and worshippedthe calf (or ox) in the wilderness; and Jereboam to gratify the ignoranceor Superstition of his countrymen, placed golden statues of them in Danand Bethel; or, perhaps from policy, introducing the worship of Apis, asa compliment to Shishak, with whom he had found a refuge from thewrath of Solomon . Similar to the worship of Apis, is the great festivalof the Chinese when the sun reaches the 15° of Aquarius, during whicha figure of a cow is carried in the processions. The feast of Lanterns ofthis people, is also like that of lamps anciently held over all Egypt. Herod .ii, 62. The celebrated Yu was, like some of his predecessors, raised tothe throne of China , on account of his agricultural labors. We are in-formed that he drair.ed a great portion of the land ; and that he wrote se-veral books on the cultivation of the soil, and on Irrigation. He flourish-ed 2205, B. C. or about 140 years after the flood. Seventeen years afterhis death, it is admitted that husbandry became systematically organized,which necessarily included a settled plan of artificial Irrigation. A writerin the Chinese Repository observes, “ in these early ages, the fundamentalmaxims of the Science of husbandry were established, which so far as wecan learn, have beenpractised to the present day .” Vol. iii, 121. Egypt-ian husbandry we are told consisted chiefly in having proper maehines forraising water, and small canals judiciously disposed to distribute it over^their fields. In both these respects it resembled that of China at the present day; a portable machine to raise water, being as necessary an imple-ment to a Chinese peasant as a spade is to one of ours.

The mythology of the whole ancient wörld seems not only to have beenintimately associated with agriculture, but appears to have been based up-on it. To the invention of the plough, and the irrigation of land, all themysteries of Ceres may be referred. The great importance of agrictd-ture in furnishing food to man, induced legislators at an early period todevise means to promote it. This they accomplished by connecting itwith the worship of the gods; and by classing the labors of husbandryamong the most essential of religious duties. This System seems to havebeen universal. It was incorporated by the Roman lawgivers with theinstitutions of that people. Plutarch , in his life of Numa, expressly Statesthat some of the laws were designed to recommend agriculture “ as a partof religion.” See also Pliny , xvii. 2. Th esacred books of almost all theancient nations placed irrigation, digging of tanks and wells, among thoseacts most acceptable to the gods ; and hence the Zendavesta of the Per-sians, and the Shaster of the Hindoos, distinctly inculcate the conveyingof water to barren land, as one of the precepts of religion.

As no country depended moreupon agriculture for the physical and poli-tical existence of its inhabitants, than Egypt ; so nowhere was religious ve-neration for it carried to a greater extent. We are informed their priestsand statesmen used “ all their influence in advancing the prosperity and