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the obfervance of the Sabbath among the Jews; and his dif ciples and followers, for feveral hundred years, never thought that the Jewish obfervance of the Sabbath conftituted any part of the duty of a Chriftian. A well-written hiftorical account of the introduction of this practice into the Chriftian Church, and its progrefs, with the motives that contributed to render it pretty univerfally adopted, would form an useful book. Our Author does not enter into this difcuffion, but merely inquires into its political expediency, as follows:

The Author did not commence Farming with a premeditated intent on Sabbath-breaking: he reveres the LAWS OF MEN, whether they are Religious, or profefedly Political, when the LAWS OF MEN are founded on the LAW OF NATURE: nay, he can allow for the mifconceptions of human frailty, and venerate the inoffenfive Law OF CUSTOM, though established in ERROR. But when the LAW OF MAN is evidently fubverfive of the LAW OF GOD, what unprejudiced man can hesitate to condemn it at least in his own mind.

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Nor did the Writer begin the practice of Working on Sundays precipitately; but was deliberately convinced of its propriety, by a feries of circumftances, and a long train of reafoning.

The first year, he faw his Hay lofe its effence, and his Corn its wholesomeness, with passive obedience to the Laws and Religion of his Country.

The Second year, perceiving more evidently the mischievousness and abfurdity of a Custom which counteracts the bounteous intentions of Providence, he began to reflect on the confequences which would refult from a non-compliance; and fifted, particularly, into the Sabbath-day employment of his weekly Servants.

One, he found digging in his garden :-another, quarrelling with his neighbour:-a third, gambling-a fourth, bl-g himfelf and blafpheming his Maker, by way of amufing the hour of indolence: the reft at the alehoufe, fquandering thofe wages which ought to have administered comfort to themselves, their wives, and their children, through the enfuing week..

The wane of the Harvest 1775 was uncommonly precarious, and the impropriety (not to fay the impioufnefs) of neglecting any opportunity which might preferve the gifts of Nature from actual wafte, was painted in fuch ftriking colours, that the Author no longer hefitated to liften to the dictates of NATURE, REASON, and COMMON-SENSE.

• See the MINUTES of the 11th SEPT. and 8th OCT. 1775.

The more the Author practifed the WORKING ON SUNDAYS in HAY-TIME and HARVEST, the more clearly he faw its PROPRIETY: he eagerly wished to fee it the common Practice of this country; and was ambitious of fetting the PATRIOTIC EXAMPLE.

His Patriotifm, however, was not feen fo clearly by his Neighbours as by himfelf; and he incurred the cenfure of many, whose good opinion he wished not to have forfeited.

The circumftance which gave the greateft offence, happened Fince the clofe of the foregoing MINUTES; the Author, nevertheless, in fupport of his conduct, will here infert, though out of form, Abftracts

fracts of a Series of MINUTES on WORKING ON SUNDAYS, made during the backward Hay-time, and the Harvest of 1777.

It is

Sunday, 3 Aug. 1777. Laft Sunday, the Meadow-hay was in fwath, and might then have been cocked: no opportunity of cocking has fince occurred, and it is now yellow and almost rotten. true, I was facrilegious enough to turn fome which was then spoiling; but the Men appeared to think it wrong, and to-day I did not dare to ask their affiftance.

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Though it has been a heavenly day, not a man was to be found, even to uncover the ftacks.

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Tuesday, 5 Aug. It may be very good policy to have days of Relaxation and Sociability; but furely thefe days ought not to be fo holy as to interfere with the Sacred Laws of Nature: it can never be good policy, in the Members of any State, to fquander wantonly the means of their own prefervation.

⚫ (See the 3d.) Had the Hay mentioned been then hook into Cocklits, it would have been ready to carry yesterday; but it was obliged to be made yesterday, and was caught in the Rain of to-day!

Sunday, 7th Sept. The last week has been very flack Harvestweather; except yesterday, which was very fine.

We had this morning about thirty loads of Wheat,-thirty loads of Oats,-fifteen loads of Barley,-and twenty acres of second cut of Clover down; and most of them fit to be carried.

The month of September is very uncertain Harvest weather: the days grow fhort;-the dews remain long on the ground; the fogs frequently hang on till noon; and, until paft the middle of the month, the Weather is generally fqually and uncertain; though the latter end is as generally fine: this, at least, was the cafe in the September of 1775 and 1776.'

We could have perceived, without being told it, that our Author had read books on farming, and formed fyftems of theory in his own mind, as these frequently influence his reafoning, and make him acquiefce in the belief of certain principles as indifputably right, which, if fully examined, would be found to be either erroneous or doubtful. We know not to what we could fo properly liken the prejudices of mankind, with regard to dogmas in agriculture, as to the fimilar prejudices ufual in religious matters. In both cafes we imbibe these prejudices before our reafon has acquired its full force, and afterward, from habit, rest satisfied with their rectitude, without mature examination. We fee evident marks, on many occafions, of this blind prejudice in favour of received doctrines in our Author. Yet is Mr. M. a fceptic, and imagines he thinks boldly for himself. He undoubtedly does fo on fome occafions. Like most modern freethinkers too, while in certain cafes he yields implicit faith to the fables of the nurfery, and in fome withholds his affent where there is lefs room for doubt, in others he still relies, with a faulty credulity, on fingle facts; and from thefe deduces practical inferences that would, in many cafes,

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cafes, be proved erroneous by the next experiment he should make. This chiefly occurs in the Digeft, which we, on this account, think is the least valuable part of the work, although it is probable the Author forms a very different judgment of it.

That we may run no risk of either impofing on the Author or our Readers, it is neceffary to inform them both, that our fpirited Writer is as yet by far too young a farmer to be qualified for deducing general rules from his practice. He is ftill groping his way, like a blind man, through a labyrinth, of whofe intricate windings he has fcarce any adequate comprehenfion, although in fome cafes he imagines he has got a glimpfe of the general plan, which he thinks will enable him to go forward with freedom. Let him not, however, rely too much upon that knowledge; let him continue his Minutes, and mark down his present opinions as they occur, merely as temporary opinions, which he may foon find reafon to relinquish, and adopt new ones in their ftead; and which will, in like manner, be dif placed in their turn. After twenty or thirty years experience thus employed, he will perhaps be capable of forming an useful digeft, in which fome general principles may be discovered, and, poffibly, be univerfally adopted. Perhaps before that time he may alfo be able to profit by touring; but till he is much farther advanced in practical knowledge than at prefent, we agree with him in thinking it would be of very little ufe. It is much to be regretted, that men will begin to travel before they can profit by it. A man of great knowledge can draw inftruction from almost every object that occurs; one of little experience fees objects that properly attract his attention.

The book already published is a fufficient fpecimen of a moft excellent plan of ftudy. As fuch we have viewed it, and in that view have beftowed upon it ample praise; but in this confifts almost its whole merit. Should more books, on the fame plan, be published, equally undigested, we should be obliged to reprehend them, as deftructive to the advancement of agriculture. We hope, therefore, that those whom it may concern will make a proper use of this watch-word.

Nothing is more agreeable, in our eyes, than a becoming ease and freedom of style; but this will not prevent us from reprehending our Author for that affectation in point of language which runs through the whole performance. The ftole of a Junius-ftile memorandal—fons of rufticity-daughters of Speculation, begin to opinion; with numberless expreffions of a similar. kind, are altogether indefenfible. At a certain period of life, what is fingular appears pretty. It is this that induces boys to

* The Author ridicules the practice of touring, as he calls it; that is, travelling in quest of agricultural knowledge.

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metamorphofe themfelves into monkies, or macaronies. It is this which caufes girls to become pert and petulant-speak loud at a play-titter at church, and be immoderately merry when others are difpofed to be ferious; and it is the fame paffion which induces young authors to coin uncouth phrafes. In all cases it is a certain proof of a prefent want of found fenfe, and a breach of decorum, that nothing but the contempt and pity which it excites prevent from being deeply refented by every fenfible perfon.

Nor can we admit, as fufficient, the apology which he offers for the many new-coined technical terms he has introduced, often without fufficient caufe. These must be confidered as trefpaffes on good-manners at least, if we do not bestow upon these words the harfher name of barbarisms. Of this kind are naturifion, vegetifion, customed, aerialist, &c. &c. &c. &c. In every art or science we admit that there must be fome technical terms; and a writer will fometimes be under the neceffity of inventing a new one for the fake of precifion. But a man of good manners will avoid using the technical terms, in all cases wherein it is poffible to make himself understood by the help of ordinary words; because he knows that when he employs unneceffarily these phrases, he renders himself unintelligible to fome of those to whom he addreffes himself, or gives them an unneceffary degree of trouble to understand him. A common failor interlards his difcourfe with fea-phrafes, upon all occafions; while the politer officer feldom finds it neceffary to employ any thing more than ordinary language; or if he fees a technical term abfolutely unavoidable, he ufes it only when neceffary. A man of judgment may, occafionally, employ uncommon phrases; but it is only a young writer, vain of his inventive genius, who will introduce them on all poffible occafions. Our lively Author frequently trefpaffes in this way.

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If technical terms, which have been long known, should be thus cautiously employed, new ones fhould not be adopted but in cafes of indifpenfible neceffity; and then they fhould be chofen with the moft fcrupulous care; otherwife they are neglected by fucceeding writers, and they become as an unneceffary excrefcence, burthening the language without being ufeful. We know of no walk in literature in which an author has lefs chance of gathering laurels than this of agriculture, although there is no department in which inexperienced writers are more ambitious of displaying their talents. We shall give one inftance of the difficulty of fucceeding, even where pains have not been fpared:

How difficult, fays our Author, the task to write intelligibly (it would be weakness to attempt to write elegantly) on infant fciences !

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The term furrow has, in Agriculture, three or four diftin&t fignifications, and muft of neceffity be a fource of perpetual ambiguity. It fignifies the foil turned by the plow, and the trench left by the operation. It fignifies the interval between two ridges, and the crofs drain which receives the rain water collected by thefe intervals. -Fobnfon adds a fifth; but he mistakes furrow for drill, or totally mifunderftands Mortimer.

• How fhall the Writer conduct himself? Shall he be guilty of the fin of ambiguity or of innovation? He will not hesitate-for the one is deadly, the other only venial; and he trufts, that the See Critical will grant him a difpenfation.

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But he finds it difficult even to fin; and confeffes, that he was never more puzzled in coining a word, than in the prefent inftance. -Johnson's general definition is, any long trench or hollow.” This includes three out of the four fignifications above-mentioned ;but the foil turned, has no claim to it whatever ;-nor, perhaps, does it ftrikingly resemble any thing:-a bad furrow, indeed, might be compared to the leaf of a book, or the lift of cloth; but a good furrow is nearly fquare, and the ideas have no connexion.

Will analogy help us? A fpade-full is called a Spit, and, by analogy, a plow-full a Plit.-A hit! Why not a plait or fold ?--Perhaps, no other worded idea bears fo near an affinity. But this will not do-it conveys an idea too effeminate for the robuft operation of plowing.-It reminds one of Milliners, Mantua makers, and Laundry-maids, rather than of Plowmen and Horned Horses.

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Will the operation afford as a better? What is the intent of the aft? The intention is various, but the act itself is uniformly, to turn the foil with a plow, upfide down-to cut off with a plow, a long piece of foil, of a certain breadth, and certain thickness, and turn it topsy-turvy. Simply, the act is turning the foil by a plow, and the thing produced is the portion of foil turned by the plow; and if we raife a name here, turn or plow, or both, is the root or roots from which it must fhoot. Turning would be ambiguous; becaufe it is generally understood to mean two of these things made by one turning of the team-and fo would plowing, because it has already two or three fignifications.

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As it is fo difficult to find a fuitable word which has any determinate meaning, fhall we look for fome general term without any meaning at all? Shall we call them firings, fhreds, flips or ftrips? No; thefe are too infignificant for fo important an operation.

What fhall we do? The English language has not a word which conveys the idea either directly or obliquely, and yet this very idea will occur perpetually, Shall we apply to fome other language? What! make Englishmen talk Greek and Latin, when they ean transfer their ideas in English? For WHATEVER IS AGREEABLE TO ENGLISH ANALOGY IS ENGLISH, whether or not it has happened to have been spoken or written. A fpade is a hand-plow; a plow is a fpade worked by cattle. The portion of earth turned by a spade is, in English, a Spit; and the Writer will not hesitate to call the por tion of earth turned by the plow, a Plit.

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