The art of
feeding mankind on so small a grain as wheat, which seems to have been
discovered in Egypt by the immortal name of Ceres, shewed greater ingenuity
than feeding them with the large roots of potatoes, which seem to have been
a discovery of ill-fated Mexico.

This greater production of food by agriculture than by pasturage, shews
that a nation nourished by animal food will be less numerous than if
nourished by vegetable; and the former will therefore be liable, if they
are engaged in war, to be conquered by the latter, as Abel was slain by
Cain. This is perhaps the only valid argument against inclosing open arable
fields. The great production of human nourishment by agriculture and
pasturage evinces the advantage of society over the savage state; as the
number of mankind becomes increased a thousand fold by the arts of
agriculture and pasturage; and their happiness is probably under good
governments improved in as great a proportion, as they become liberated
from the hourly fear of beasts of prey, from the daily fear of famine, and
of the occasional incursions of their cannibal neighbours.

But pasturage cannot exist without property both in the soil, and the herds
which it nurtures; and for the invention of arts, and production of tools
necessary to agriculture, some must think, and others labour; and as the
efforts of some will be crowned with greater success than that of others,
an inequality of the ranks of society must succeed; but this inequality of
mankind in the present state of the world is too great for the purposes of
producing the greatest quantity of human nourishment, and the greatest sum
of human happiness; there should be no slavery at one end of the chain of
society, and no despotism at the other.--By the future improvements of
human reason such governments may possibly hereafter be established, as may
a hundred-fold increase the numbers of mankind, and a thousand-fold their
happiness.

IV. 1. Water must be considered as a part of our nutriment, because so much
of it enters the composition of our solids as well as of our fluids; and
because vegetables are now believed to draw almost the whole of their
nourishment from this source. As in them the water is decomposed, as it is
perspired by them in the sunshine, the oxygen gas increases the quantity
and the purity of the atmosphere in their vicinity, and the hydrogen seems
to be retained, and to form the nutritive juices, and consequent secretion