God established among the Hebrews was foreseen by his all-seeing eye; and to secure them against the evils of degrading want on the one hand, and of corrupting luxury on the other, he prescribed their pursuits and condition in life with extraordinary care.

Nomadic life is always more or less allied to barbarism, and to reclaim men from the habits of wandering hordes, and to give them a fixed dwelling place, a residence around which shall cluster the humanizing attachments of home, must always be viewed as a first step in social improvement. It is obvious that in order to effect this great end a man must have property in land-he must be enabled to look on some suitably defined portion of the earth as his own. Rousseau's favorite saying, "the first man who enclosed a field and called it mine is the author of all the social ills that followed," is not only false, but among the most glaring falsehoods which even Rousseau ever uttered. This sentiment too, which came from his pen nearly a century since, reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun. The Socialists, or Communitists, or whatever be the name by which they would be called, who, in our day, would annul all rights of individual property, and would have every thing belong to every man, and yet nothing to any man, are not entitled to claim originality

in their views. They are but the followers of one whose wild notions on all subjects made it matter of doubt whether he was most of the infidel or of the madman.

To give a man the ownership of the soil on which he dwells, is the only effectual way to encourage and secure the cultivation of it; and while the wealth of a nation is thus promoted by his industry, both his possessions and his occupation tend to create that sense of independence and habit of sobriety and endurance which form the distinguishing character of a free people. Accordingly, when the Hebrews were to become the depositaries of divine truth and human rights, the Most High gave them laws which were designed to render them generally both owners and cultivators of land, and to give agriculture importance and honor in public estimation. As these ordinances involve great principles which lie at the very foundation of well organized society, let us look at them with care, and see how the observance of them among the people tended to cherish piety towards God, and both freedom and good government among themselves.

When the nation was planted in the land of promise the tribes drew their various inheritances by lot, according to a divine command. But when this was done, the law next directed that a portion of

land should be allotted to every Hebrew, which was to be his for ever, which he was to cultivate during his life, and which his children after him were to take as their heritage. Except the tribe of Levi, for whom other provision was made as the ministers of religion and knowledge, every Israelite, who was the head of a family, was thus rendered a proprietor and tiller of the soil. But there was another peculiar provision. The land thus allotted to a man might pass away from his possession through his misfortune or improvidence, and his family be thus reduced to poverty, their paternal inheritance being irrecoverably lost. Such disasters we see occurring among ourselves every day. To secure the Hebrews against this degradation, and to preserve the equality which had been originally established, no landed estate could be alienated for more than fifty years. This was a leading ordinance in the polity of the Hebrews, and created a marked distinction between them and other nations; a distinction too, as we will see hereafter, which was of essential importance in promoting both public and private welfare. In Egypt, the country which they had just left, the land throughout belonged to the king; and the husbandmen, far from being proprietors of the fields on which they bestowed their labor, were rather tenants, paying a permanent rent

into the royal treasury. So it long continued to be in other kingdoms of the world. And so the Hebrews were forewarned it would be with them as a consequence of their folly in choosing to be under a king. "He will take your fields," said Samuel, “and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and the tenth of your sheep, and ye shall be his servants.”* Far different was the condition of the people while they were contented to live under the form of government which the Most High gave them at their settlement in the land of promise. Then every man was not only acknowledged the owner of his land for ever and unalienably, but he "sat under his vine and his fig tree, and there was none to make him afraid." The only estates which could be called entailed were those belonging to the men who would both cultivate and occupy them, thus rendering the husbandman the only hereditary nobleman of the nation. For it should be remembered, this law did not apply to the ownership of houses in cities. They might pass away from a man like his gold or silver; but his

* The manner in which Ahab sought Naboth's vineyard shows how faithfully this picture was drawn, and how recklessly the kings of Israel seized upon a landed inheritance, setting at nought the rights of their subjects and the ordinance of God.

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property in land which he was to cultivate for the sustenance of himself and his family, could never be permanently alienated. Though for a few years it might cease to be his, when the year of Jubilee came round, his inheritance was by law restored to him, and he was enabled to begin the world anew. Indeed, a special law provided that any one who had parted with his land might recover it at any time, through himself or "his nearest of kin," by paying to the holder whatever might be esteemed as the reasonable profits from the property until the coming Jubilee. These ordinances secured the people against that feudal tyranny which has overrun every eastern country at one time or another, and created a degrading bondage, at war with the happiness, and too often with the innocence of the many, who were held as vassals and serfs of the few.*

Such being the fundamental laws of the State as to agriculture, it naturally followed that the occupation of the husbandman became general among the people, and was held in high honor. Their best and greatest men were more or less cultivators of the soil. Saul, when made king, was found with his oxen.

Elisha, when called to be a

prophet, was employed in following the plough; and

*Note O.