The Sun.
London, England, 1802-07-29 00:00:00

NATIONAL INSTITUTE.

EXTRACT of a Memoir op the Instruments- of
•
Agficutture used 14 the Ancknts, and. particularly
On their Ploughs,---read at. the Public Sitting of the
Institute, April 5, 1802, by Citizen-Motictz, a

Tribune. •
, Pliny, (iib. xviii. cap. 4.) describing the ancient
fertility of the lands in:the nEiglibourhood of Rome,
which were sterile under 'the dainion of the
Emperors, asks, " What was the cause of this great
Fertility ? Its was because at that period Generals
cultivated their fields themselves. The Earth,.as we
are taught to believe, was .proud of a labourer who
had obtained the honours of a Triumph,' and of a
Plough-share, ornamented with Laurels," •
Thus at the moinent,when France, covered with
Laurels and Palms,presents to the astonished Uni verse
the pacific Olive, it is beuutiful, it is consoling to see
great minds turning their attention towards Agri-
culture ; the primary source of true riches. - The
Plough, and
,itimprovements, fixes at present the
attention of a Leitrned-Society. I have called' in
"the Ancients to this noble Assembly, and have.add
ed to the Memoir, of which I have made-,an ex-
,traa, designs of more than twenty ?loughs. which I
have found engravti on medals and stones, and -de-
lineated in•ancient platireS
Pancirole has written a•Treaiise'on inventions TOst,
aced• those whrch appear ,to be -fabulous which
,merits our regret. The gratitude of nank'ind
ought to enroll the-History of Inl'entors: 417 e find
many candidates for the invention of the Plough ;
such as Osiris, Bacchus, Triptoleme, &C,, but -it ,is
evident we are ignorant of the real Inventor; and
that each Country has given the glorious name, of
Inventor to him who has procured the instrument,
or him who has adapted it td the cultivation of the
soil.

lln the time of Homer they were acqu'ainted with
two sorts of Ploughs, the one siiitpin and the other
compound. Hesiod, hit contemporary sings of them.
It appears from Hesiod that they were acquainted
with two sorts. I sought for and found them on-
antique monuments. It is there that the Anti-'
quary, who. is occupied with things in detail,
enlightens the- Philologist, all whose attention
is fixed upon words. A crooked piece of wood'
.was used by a savage people to open the Rillov.v-s, to
this they added a cross piece, which gave the whole
some resemblance to Sgt eat 'A, this was the. simPle
Plough. '
In 1788, .1 observed that the attribute giVen to
the figure of Osiris, which is called. the .A.ipha of
the Greeks, and which Kircher had taken for the.
hieroglyphic Alpha, was nothing but a ..,simple
Plough, the instrument of which,.osiris was hetie siert
to be the inventor. In the subterranean caverns of
Eileithya, that legion'OfScavant, who on the banks
of the Nile, led the French hero. to' the discovery
of Pidures, displaying. an Antiquity anterior. to all
Chronology, dis Covered one of an ,Egyptian til-
ling the earth, with- an instrument eXaCtly similar
to this, pretended Alpha, and my conjedure has
thus been confirmed.
When the Romans marked out the boundaries of a
City, they-.employed the simple Plough, as may be
seen on their medals. Perhaps they wished, by the
primitive form of the instrument, to recall the sim-
plicity.of ;he first ages, and the purity of antient
Manners. The same on a, medal of Vespasian, For-
tune is represented, having for' 14r attributes, the
Helm of a Ship, and. a simple Plough. Does not
this,,reeall to mind the political axiom of ,Sully, .ft that
Commerce and Agriculttre are the two main pillars
of a great State ?-
Pi-wins, the scholiast of, Hesiod, and a scholiast
of the Argonautics, 'have described. the compound
Plough of the Greeks ; but their descriptions apply
"to instruments, the one more and ;he
.other less
compound, which renders them, unintelligible when
they are applied to one design. I have discovered
amongst 'a great number of designs which. I have
colleded, the different Ploughs whichsthose Writers
had in view, and their descriptions thus become
clear and precise. -
The Compound Plough of the ROMans identifies
itself in -a great measure with that used in our
Southern Departments.: At this we need not be
astonished, as those Departments formed a Roman
_Province, the people of which adopted the arts and
the customs of their conquerors. Besides, it is
known •—that the Gauls received from the Ro-
mans the vine and their princip.ll fruit-trees, such
as the cherry, the pear, the almond, &c. probably
also the finer species of wheat. From the atten_
tion which I have paid to this subjed, I am enabled
to state, that our Plough, in the South, will -serve
to explain, literally, the description' of that instrd-
went given by 'Virgil in the Georgics. In adopt-•
ing the Roman Plough, the Cisalpine Gauls im-
proved, it by adding the wheels, as, we are told by

.131;ny, (Jib. xviii. cep. is.)
Zn Whar entintries did they labour With the simpe
Plough ? In what country, did they' furrow with
the Compound Plough ? The answers to these
questions will be found in thiS Memoir,: which I
have founded upon a small number of isolated nas-
sages and,some medals. 'This is\ the abridged' re_
'suit. They employed ' the light Plough -in the
plains of Babylon and Seleticia, which were watered
by prolonged irrigations from the Euphrates and
Tigris ; in those which extend between the Chain
of Lebanon and the Meditteranean, the fertile shores
of`the Nile from Thebes unto its seven mouths,
Lybia, the lel& of. Carthage and Numidia, the
fertile plains of Sicily, Spain, and,-lastly, the Fields
of Campania fertilized by volcanic produftions.
—The compound Pfough furrowed Greece, a coun-
try rendered as unequal by its situation as by 'the
difference of its prodtu and Cisalpine Gaul,
Covered by the wreck of the Rhetian Alps. I can
say nothing of Germany, the two Pannonias, or the
rest of Europe.—Ancient Writers are silent as to
those Cwntries, and their silence is the motive for
mine.

The Greeks, id he time of Homer, worked- the
Plough by mules in 'preference to oxen. A Latin
proverb informs us, that the Romans reeryed their
horses for their chariots, and employed, almost ex-
clusively, oxen in the Plough. PlinTsays, xviii,

Cap. it,) tiuit,, •":to 'open the, fertile, plains of
Byzacirem in Africa, they waited till the rains had.
softened the earth, and that then, a very. weak ass
and are old woman were attached to the same yoke
to draw a Eg!it Plough.'' I *should have doubte4
the .truth or this: statement, if I had rot in my
youth seen in the ci-ieTant Dauphipy something
very Similar.

All antique monuments agree in representing the
oxen Yoked by the shoulders.and the neck. I have
not found, any. in which they were tied by the
horns, as is praffised 'in the greater. part of the
Republic.--Coluitella•blameS, with some energy,
this latter'custOm,-which was beginning to be esti.
Wished in histime..

Such, are the principal results of my labours, the
details of «hick ha‘;e been examined in our Private
Sittings.

O On MONDAY NEXT the ENG L ISE! LOTTERY
begins-drawing, •
_ _ .

tst day, Aloiiday, act Aug.. First drawn, Z.. s,OOO
ad .day,.Thyrsday, sth Aug. Fitst drawn, z,doo
3d day, Monday, 9th Aug. First drawn,
.10,030
4thday,. Thursday, r zth Aug. 'First drawn, 20,000
sth day, Monday, 16th Aug. First drawn, 5,000
• 6th day, Thursday, 19th Aug. First draWn, a,OOO
7th day; Monday, z3ci Aug. First drawn 20,000
Sth, Last day, -Thursday, 2.6thAug. First dr. 10,000
• Besides Capital And other Prizes to the
amount_of - . - t;i6,000
The Tiol(FTs, HALVES, QUARTtRS,' EIGHTHS,
and St/ .I
SHARE-Sp are sold and. Registered,
on the lowest Terms,. at Mr. Nterivi.s?., Ufficei
No. ifi, CORNHILL, opposite the Bank of Englard,
whete, in the the laSt English Lottery, more than
one hundred and fifty different-person in Clubs, and
Individuals, received Shares of CAPITAL PRIZ:ES
from zo,oool. to zOOOL Particulats in the Schemes at
large. Office hours from Eight in the Morning un-
til Eight at Night.
The following persons, in April last, received
of Mr. NretiotsoN, No. 16, Cotnllill, between
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Note—The New Lottery begins. drawing on
Monday next.

•
On 'Monday next the neap4tate 'Lottery coal.*
menees. Drawing. Tickets and Shares, in. gr,,-:0C
variety of Numbers, and lowest prices, continued on
Sale, at the Offices, Coruhill and Cbaring Cross, -01
RICHARD§ON,-6•OODLUCX and, Co.'

`SHIP NPTVS.

CRAVEStNi), JULY 27

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