A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

we are so to apportion, that our highest interests, shall receive the greatest allotment, and our physical gratifications, the least. The laws of the Supreme Ruler, when He became the civil as well as the religious Head of the Jewish theocracy, furnish an example, which it would be well for all attentively to consider, when forming plans for the apportionment of time and property. To properly estimate this example, it must be borne in mind, that the main object of God, was, to preserve His religion among the Jewish nation; and that they were not required to take any means to propagate it among other nations, as Christians are now required to extend Christianity. So low were they, in the scale of civilization and mental developement, that a system, which confined them to one spot, as an agricultural people, and prevented their growing very rich, or having extensive commerce with other nations, was indispensable to prevent their relapsing into the low idolatries and vices of the nations around them. The proportion of time and property, which every Jew was required to devote to intellectual, benevolent, and religious purposes, was as follows: In regard to property, they were required to give one tenth of all their yearly income, to support the Levites, the priests, and the religious service. Next, they were required to give the first fruits of all their corn, wine, oil, and fruits, and the first-born of all their cattle, for the Lord's treasury, to be employed for the priests, the widow, the fatherless, and the stranger. The first-born, also, of their children, were the Lord's, and were to be redeemed by a specified sum, paid into the sacred treasury. Besides this, they were required to bring a freewill offering to God, every time they went up to the three great yearly festivals. In addition to this, regular yearly sacrifices, of cattle and fowls, were required of each family, and occasional sacrifices for certain sins or ceremonial impurities. In reaping their fields, they were required to leave unreaped, for the poor, the corners; not to glean their fields, olive-yards,