periments. There are fome other English words, of immediate derivation from this Hebrew one, which, while the modern philofopher knows not, nor confiders, his pride as with bird lime will be held by the plumes, refpecting nature's procefs to vegetation.

There are other words ufed by our Hebrew philofopher and the prophets, that will give light and pleasure to the rural philofopher, who has curiofity to compare the operations of nature with the account the original scriptures give of them. The toil will delight all impartial men, who can blot the claffic page out; all who are not bewildered and stupefied in the dreams and falfhoods of deifi; all who have but a spark of reafon left in their breafts; that will be fufficient to dif cover the congenial relation fubfifting between God's word and his works.

1 is one of those words; its idea is that of an inftrument to convey light; it is tranflated a candlestick, lamp, fire, light; and when the jod is found in the place of the vau, it is to plow land, to fallow ground; our English word nerve is derived from it; and the office of the nerves in the human body may with great certainty be known by it; but not till all the lumber of the modern philofophy be got clear out of the head; for while that remains, truth cannot enter; while that exifts in the mind, a comment on the word will be fimilar to putting a jewel of gold into a fwine's fnout. He that cannot fee the compatibility of the ideas under this word recited above, will have. but an obfcure notion of the physical reason of plowing or fallowing the ground.'

He will have the food of vegetables to be neither earth, water, falt, nor oil, but a gum, or aftral balfam.

This is the ground and foundation of all the augmentation and multiplication in the natural world; this is the true na tural cause of the growth or increase of our corn, hay, trees, &c. This is the fire, the aliment brought down from heaven by our Prometheus; the want of this aliment is the reason why the fif in ponds die for want of rain; and though there is water enough in the pond, yet the vegetables growing there, that never raise their heads above the surface of the water, perish alfo for want of rain. I might here adduce a multitude of inftances of the like kind, in confirmation of the doctrine above.

The food of vegetables hath been mistaken totally by all the writers on agriculture that I have feen, and while men follow their own fancies, and draw conclufions from their own preconceived imaginations, how can it be otherwise? In vain do men talk of nature, while they dwell on their own concep

tions, and will make no ufe of her principles, nor be guided by her author: hence it is that they have miftaken the most filthy compofts for vegetable food, at the fame time making it a matter of as great nicety to know what compoft will best agree with their foil, as for a physician to know what phyfick is beft for a man groaning under a complication of diseases; yet confess, that vaft tracts of manured land in Europe have been rendered barren for many years by a mifapplication of compofts; and that instead of phyfick to the fick land, it has proved poifon. This muft always be the cafe, till the true food of vegetables is known; as alfo how to bring it into contact with the roots of the plants: and that philosophy muft not only be very defective, but I think worse than ignorance, that cannot tell how far this celeftial treasure is put in our power, to direct its energy for our own profit.

Whether the true food of vegetation is here discovered or not; or whether it is pointed out fufficiently plain or not, the reader is to judge: but when he has made himself master of the fubject, I fhall have no fear of his damnatory sentence. But what if the book be condemned to the flames, and the author to contempt, for daring to plead for a true Mosaic natural- philofophy it will not furprize him: but even then, he will not fubmit a truth of fo much importance as the food of vegetables to vote; for when it is contefted, he has more to fay in fupport of it: for it is evident, that among all the fyftems of the fciences not one of them is so deficient, or rather fo completely erroneous, as the prefent fyftem of agriculture yet by the state of their agriculture, the liberty, policy, and philofophy of any kingdom may be known: where the fields are barren, the markets empty, and provifions dear; tyranny, ignorance, and want of policy are confpicuous. In particular cafes, when we fee barren fields, we know the owner is either a fool or a fluggard, or that he is under oppreffion.

I fhall no doubt be put in mind of the different foils to be met with, sometimes in the fame field; and that they are not all to be treated alike. It is granted: a marsh overflowed with falt water at the return of every tide, is not to be treated like a mountainous country; the former is not fit to grow cucumbers, nor the latter ofiers: but it will not follow from thence, that either of them wants compoft: for mixing the different foils is found by experience to effect more than all the dung upon earth. Who ever faw a dunghiil produce any thing but rank weeds? and when spread upon the ground, it promotes the growth of weeds: the reafon of which is fo plain, that it would be almoft affronting the understanding of the VOL. XXIX. Feb. 1770. reader

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reader to mention it. We fee the heat of the brutes ftomach deftroys not the vegetable quality of the feeds of plants. Al the ardor that can be given to the ground, by compoft of any kind, is but temporary; that by dung of a very fhort duration; that by horns, hoofs, oyfter-fhells, &c. of a longer; but all is but a kind of quacking with the earth, and frequently ruins its conftitution, as is confeffed by Duhamel, and is evident by the taste of our vegetables near London.

But a more permanent recruit of the earth's ftrength may at a much less expence be obtained than that by an annual compoft. By this I do not mean to feclude the ufe of all compoft, where it can be come at free coft, fuch as penning of fheep, &c. but to diffuade the farmers from the enormous charge they are at from year to year for manure, when, if they would fallow their land oftener, and kill their weeds, they would find their profit in it more than in all the composts they use. I have known farmers, who have been at a vast expence for manure; another, who could not bear that expence, by mere industry has had better crops, without any manure at all, than the former had with all theirs.

Furius Vefinius, a peafant, being accufed before the people of Rome for a fort of wizardry done by him upon his neighbours lands, which, though of greater extent, yet yielded not fo good crops as his that were lefs, took no other courfe to juftify his innocence, than to bring with him on the day of his appearance the inftruments of agriculture, kept in exceeding good order, befeeching his judges to believe that he had made ufe of no other wizardry than thofe, together with abundance of pains and watching, which to his forrow he knew not how otherwife to reprefent."

However, amidst all the extravagance and fanaticism of this author, in regard to agriculture, he proposes fome methods for reducing the price of provifions, which are not unworthy of attention.

IX. Sermons on the Efficacy of Prayer and Interceffion. By Samuel Ogden, D. D. Woodwardian Profeffor in the University of Cambridge. 8vo. Pr. 31. DodЛley.

A Mong other points of controversy, we have had disputes

and diffenfions concerning prayer. It is agreed that prayer is a reasonable and neceffary duty in the prefent fituation and circumstances of mankind; that it has a natural tendency to beget and promote all thofe amiable difpofitions of mind, which render men happy in themfelves, and agreeable

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to one another. But there are different fentiments with refpect to its efficacy. Some tell us, that it is not the design of prayer to move the affections of the Supreme Being, as good fpeakers move the hearts of their hearers by the pathetic arts of oratory, nor to raife his pity, as beggars by their importunities and tears work upon the compaflion of the bystanders ; that God is not fubject to thofe fudden paflions and emotions of mind which we feel; nor to any alteration of his measures and conduct by their influence; that he is not wrought upon, and changed by our prayers, for with him is no variableness nor Shadow of turning; that prayer only works its effect upon us, as it contributes to change the temper of our minds, to beget or improve right difpofitions in them, to lay them open to the impreffions of fpiritual objects, and thus qualify us for receiving the approbation and the bleflings of our Creator.

Others have thought, that this notion of prayer is defective and erroneous. They have obferved, that it is indeed one of the natural means of moral and religious improvement; but that this is not the whole account of the matter, nor even the moft obvious way of confidering the fubject; that when the feripture fays, efk and it shall be given you, the plain meaning of the words must be, that the Almighty may be moved by prayer; and that it may be fo, though we may not be able to conceive how it is effected.

Dr. Ogden, who embraces this opinion, obferves, that when a plain Chriftian retires to his clofet to beg the blefiing of his Maker, the alteration, which his prayer will make on his own mind, is not the effect he thinks of, or expects from his devotions. Nay, fays he, if this be indeed all that he is to expect, and he be made to comprehend it, the difcovery, it is very poffible, may be attended with inconvenience, a diminution of that very advantage which is fuppofed to be his only The earnestnefs of his prayers may be checked, by the recollection of the defign of them, and bis fervor cooled by the very confcioufnels that he is only endeavouring to excite it.

one.

In the following paffage he feems to explain the efficacy of prayer in a very clear and unexceptionable manner :-'You may remember a little ancient fable to the following purpofe. An old man upon his death-bed, faid to his fons as they stood round him, I am poffeffed, my dear children, of a treasure of great value, which, as it is fit, must now be your's. They drew nearer: nay, added the fick man, I have it not here in my hands; it is depofited fomewhere in my fie'ds; dig, and you will be fure to find. They followed his directions, though they mistook his meaning. Treasure of gold or filver there was none; but by means of this extraordinary culture, the land

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yielded

yielded in the time of harvest such an abundant crop, as both rewarded them for their obedience to their parent, and at the fame time explained the nature of his command.

Our Father, who is in heaven, hath commanded us in our wants to apply to him in prayer, with an affurance of fuccels: afk, and it shall be given you; feek, and ye shall find. Now, it is certain that without his immediate interpofition, were his ear heavy, as the fcripture phrafe is, that he could not hear, there is a natural efficacy in our prayers themselves to work in our minds thofe graces and good difpofitions which we beg of the Almighty, and by confequence to make us fitter objects of his mercy. Thus it is, that we ask, and receive; we seek, and, like the children of the fagacious old hufbandman, find also the very thing which we were seeking, though in another form: our petitions produce in fact the good effects which we desired, though not in the manner which we ignorantly expected.

But yet, allowing this confideration its full force, there is no neceffity of ftopping here, and confining the power of prayer to this fingle method of operation. Does the clear affurance of its ufe in this way preclude the hopes of every other advantage? Must we needs be made acquainted with all the efficacy of every thing that is our duty, and know the whole ground and reafon of all the actions which Almighty God can poffibly require of us?

When the Ifraelites, under the conduct of Joshua, were. commanded, upon hearing the found of the trumpet, to fhout. with a great fhout; and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man ftraight before him, and they took the city; was the reafon of this command, and the operation of the means to be made use of, understood by all that were concerned? Was it the undulation of the air, think you, the phyfical effect of many concurrent voices, that overthrew the walls of Jericho? or, fuppofe the people were commanded to fhout in token of their Faith; (for it was by Faith, as the apoftle fpeaks, that the walls of Jericho fell down ;) which way is it that Faith operates in the performance of fuch wonders?

You will fay, no doubt, that thefe were wonders, and the cafe miraculous; and that we are not from fuch extraordinary events to draw conclufions concerning the general duties of Christianity.

The drought, that was in the land of Ifrael in the time of Elijah, I fuppofe no one will deny to have been miraculous. Yet we have the authority of an apostle to conclude from it in general, that good men's petitions are efficacious and powerful. Elias was a man subject to like paffions as que are, and be prayed earntfily that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth

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