CHA P. I. Of Agriculture. HE hiftory of the people of Afia, in the ages which are the object of this fecond part, furnish us with nothing in particular of the state of agriculture properly so called. I think we can only perceive fome traces which give room to think, that the art of gardening was then much cultivated in fome countries of that part of the world. The Syrians are faid to have understood gardening perfectly, a proof that they had applied themselves to it a long time. We might fay as much of the Phrygians. The gardens of Midas were very famous in antiquity; but there now remains no defcription of them. Herodotus, who speaks of them, contents himself with faying, that there grew rofes of a great fize and admirable fmell. Homer will give us more lights on this fubject. The defcription of the gardens of Alcinous will let us know what was the tafte of the people of Afia, in this part of agriculture. The reader will perhaps be aftonished at the relation which I eftablish between Afia and the isle of the Phæacians; but I think it fufficiently authorised *. Plin. 1, 2c. fect. 16. p. 192. e L. 8. n. 138. Homer *To this time they have always taken the isle of Corfu for the isle of the Phacacians, fo famous in the poems of Homer. Yet I do not know if the reafons on which they found it are abfolutely decifive. I think, on the contrary, facts may be found in the text of Homer, which will not fuffer us to place the idle of the Phaeacians in Europe. The fole motive on which they establish the identity of the isle of the Phaeacians with that of Corfu, is its nearness to Ithaca. It is not difficult to destroy this conjecture, and to fhew it is fupported on very weak foundations. Homer has fown too many fables and put too many contradictions in the voyages of Ulyffes, for its being poffible to determine with any fort of certainty, the countries where he would make his hero land. Geographic exactness was not the end the poet proposed in the Odyffee. Every moment he difplaces countries, and makes his routes, juf as he thinks proper. In vain would we endeavour to iad most of the countries he speaks of; the trial would be fruitlefs. [ hall mention, for example, the isle of Oea, where Homer is the most ancient author who has spoken expressly of gardens, and who took pleasure in defcribing them. His works then can instruct us in the fpecies of trees and plants which were known and cultivated in these earliest times. We likewife find there the manner in which their gardens were difpofed. This where the poet places the abode of Circe. Geographers pretend that it is the promontory Circei, fituated on the western coaft of Italy. But what refemblance can one find between the isle of Oea of Homer and the promontory Circei? 1. Homer says plainly that Circe lived in an isle, and not upon a promontory. 2. There never was a city of Oea in Italy. 3. Homer fays the ifle of Circe was fituated in the ocean. We are not ignorant how far the promontory Circei is diftant from it. Laftly, How can one reconcile the pofition of this promontory, fituated on the western coaft of Italy, with the dancing of Aurora which Homer places in the ifle of Oea, where he says moreover, the faw the sun rife? Odyff. 1.12, init. I know very well that Strabo, and those who defend the geography of the Odyssee, have endeavoured to reconcile, by the help of an ancient tradition, the contradictions I mention. But we fee that they are every moment obliged to do violence to the most common notions of geography. They are obliged to overturn all the ideas we can have of it. But, fay they, the ifle of the Phaeacians cannot be far from Ithaca, fince Ulyffes was only one day in going to it. To draw any induction from this reasoning, we should be affured that Homer never lofes probability on this fubject. Yet we fee that when Ulyffes parts from Circe to go to Hell, the poet makes him cross the ocean in one day. With regard to his croffing from the isle of the Phaeacians to Ithaca, the marvellous which Homer has spread over all that recital, does not permit us to infer any thing as to the distance of places. He explains it clearly enough, fince he says, that it was not with the veffels of the Phaeacians as with those of other nations. These fhips, fays he, have neither rudder nor pilot. They are endowed with knowledge. They of themfelves know the way to all cities and to all countries; they very foon make the longest voyages. Odyff. 1.8. v. 556. &c. I think this paffage fufficiently deftroys all the inductions which they pretend to draw from the proximity of the ifle of Corfu to that of Ithaca. Besides, they do not find any conformity, any relation between the name of Scherie, which Homer gives to the ifle of the Phacacians, and that of Corcyra or Corfu. Let us now fhew that the state in which the poet fays the ifle of Phaeacia was when Ulyffes landed there, does not in any respect agree with the ftate the ifle of Corfu must have been in the heroic ages. Homer defcribes the isle of the Phaeacians as a country where there reigned at the time of the war of Troy an opulence, a luxury, and magnificence, certainly at that time unknown in Europe. I do not speak of the palace of Alcinous, although Homer feems to have exhausted himself to give us the highest idea of it. But 1 fhall infift on the grandeur and decoration of the public fquares, on that of their ports, on the beauty and number of their This poet fays that they had in the gardens of Alcinous pear-trees, pomegranates, figs, and olives.. And there is even room to fufpect that they had citron-trees. As to pulfe and roots, Homer enters into no detail on this article; only one may conjecture that they had many forts. As to the diftribution and arrangement of thefe gardens, we fee that they had a fort of fymmetry. They were divided into three parts: an orchard, containing the fruit-trees, a vineyard, and kitchen-garden. The trees do not feem to have been planted confufedly in the orchard. It appears on the contrary, that they then knew the art of planting by the line *. The vineyard might likewife form an arbour, As to the kitchen-garden, Homer, as I imagine, gives us to understand, that the pulfe and roots were ranged in different beds or compartments t. They knew likewife how to conduct and distribute running waters in their gardens. Homer remarks, that in those of Alcinous they had fhips with which they were filled, in a word, of the experience of the Phaeacians in maritime affairs, and of the extent of their commerce. I shall support it by the ingenuity and addrefs of the Phaeacians in making stuffs of a surprifing fineness and beauty. I say that all this description could not characterise an ifle in Europe in the heroic times; and to convince us of this, it is fufficient to caft our eyes on the ftate in which the arts, commerce, and navigation were at that time in Greece. I believe, on the contrary, that from thence we may trace the features of the Afiatics. "Tis to thefe people we ought to afcribe all that Homer fays of the Phaeacians; and I do not imagine he had any other views. The poet was too knowing to be ignorant, that, at the time of Ulyffes, there was no ifle in Greece in a ftate like that in which he has painted the isle of the Phaeacians. I do not think then that all these conjectures, to which they are obliged to have recourfe to place this ifle in Europe, can outdo the text of Homer, which to me appears plainly to prove that the poet defigned fome Greek colony transported into fome one of the ifles of Afia. f Odyff. 1. 7. v. 115. &c. Moniaι dyλxónapwa, literally, fruits glittering to fight. Which one may well interpret oranges, or citrons. Ibid. v. 127. & 128. * I found my conjecture on this, becaufe Homer ufes the word "pxaros, rather than that of xnzos, in fpeaking of the gardens of Alcinous. Now, the word opxaros comes from the root opxos, which fignifies plants ranged with order and fymmetry. +This, I think, is the induction we ought to infer from the terms oμentai #patial, which Homer ufes: his fcholiaft explains them, and I think with great judgment, by ev ṛažã diaribhuva, of plants ranged in order. two two fountains: one dividing itfelf into different canals, watered all the garden: the other running along the walls of the court, came out at the end of the palace, and fup! plied the whole city with water 1. Yet we must agree, that this defcription does not give us a grand idea of the tafte which then reigned in gardens. Those of Alcinous, to speak properly, were only inclosures or orchards. We fee nothing but fruit-trees or useful plants. No mention of elm, of beech, of plane, nor of any other trees, which in fucceeding times have made the ornament and beauty of gardens. No covered walks, no groves, no terraffes. There is nothing faid of flowers, ftill lefs of par terres. In a word, there is nothing in this defcription which gives any idea of what one may call the defign and arrange. ment of a garden. A more important point is to examine what knowledge they then had of the culture of trees. It is certain, that the art of planting them where they pleased, was very well known; but were they equally inftructed in the art of managing them, to graft, for example? on this I have already had an opportunity of propofing fome conjectures 1. I maintain that this fecret was not known till late let us give the motives which made me embrace this opinion. There is no mention made of grafting in the writings of Moses. Yet we see this legislator gives to the Ifraelites very ufeful precepts for the culture of fruit-trees. He orders them to pull off the fruit from the trees they have planted for the first three years. Thofe of the fourth must be confecrated to the Lord. They were not thefore permitted to eat them till the fifth year. This precept was founded on the experience and knowledge which Mofes had of the culture of fruit-trees. He was not ignorant that it weakens and exhaufts a young tree when you fuffer it to bring to maturity the fruit it produces at its first effort: thus in ordering the Ifraelites to pull off the fruit the first three years, the inten h Odyff. 1. 7. v. 129. &c. i See part 1. book 2, chap. 1. art. 5: * Levit. c. 19. v.23. &c. tion of Mofes has been to teach his people the means of preferving their fruit-trees, and to inake them bear good fruit. After these details, I think we have a right to prefume, that if Mofes had known how to graft, he would not have neglected to have given fome precept to the Hebrews. We fee likewise, that Homer fays nothing of grafting, although he had occafion to fpeak of it many times. One may add, that there is no mention of grafting in the poems of Hefiod that now remain *; notwithstanding his first work, where he treats fo particularly of all that concerns agriculture, is come to us fo entire. But the induction which we might draw from the filence of Hesiod, will not be equally conclufive. First, it is certain, that all the writings of this poet are not come down to us 1. And secondly, we find in Manilius a paffage that gives us to understand, that Hefiod had spoke of grafting in some of his works . I will not therefore avail myself of the writings of this poet to deny the antiquity of this discovery. But allowing, that this fecret might be known to Hefiod, we can conclude nothing for the times of which I speak. This poet is much later than the epocha we are now employed about. * One might bring authority from ver. 731. Oper. & Dier to maintain, that the art of grafting was not unknown to Hefiod. But befides that the most able critics look upon the common reading as vitious, and substitute 1 for ivrpilaodai which we read in the editions, it would be very fingular to see the verb EvTpipe¡v become fynonymous to iμpúa; a term confecrated to signify the operation of grafting. 1 See Fabric. bibli. Graec. t. 1. p. 379 Atque arbufta vagis effent quod adultera pomis. 1. 2. v. 22. It is certain, that by this expreffion Manilius meant grafting. Pliny uses the fame term in fpeaking of scions or grafts. Ob hoc infita & arborum quoque adulteria excogitata funt. 1. 17. fect. 1. Yet there is in all this a confiderable difficulty, in fo far, that Manilius attri'butes in this whole paffage many things to Hefiod, which are not found in his works, or even what is contrary to what we find there. Scaliger thinks, that Manilius has confounded the poems which pafs for Orpheus's with those of Hefiod. He even brings on this occafion nine verfes of the beginning of one of these pretended poems which bears the fame title with that of Hefiod called ipya ý hμipat. In Manil. p. 102. & 103. We fhould remember, that all the poems attributed to Orpheus are fuppofititious, fo that authority concludes nothing for the antiquity of grafts. |