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

or vineyards; and, if a sheaf was left, by mistake, they were not to return for it, but leave it for the poor. When a man sent away a servant, he was thus charged: "Furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press." When a poor man came to borrow money, they were forbidden to deny him, or to take any interest; and if, at the sabbatical, or seventh, year, he could not pay, the debt was to be cancelled. And to this command, is added the significant caution, "Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, the seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him," "because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto." Besides this, the Levites were distributed through the land, with the intention that they should be instructors and priests in every part of the nation. Thus, one twelfth of the people were set apart, having no landed property, to be priests and teachers; and the other tribes were required to support them liberally. In regard to the time taken from secular pursuits, for the support of religion, an equally liberal amount was demanded. In the first place, one seventh part of their time was taken for the weekly sabbath, when no kind of work was to be done. Then the whole nation were required to meet, at the appointed place, three times a year, which, including their journeys, and stay there, occupied eight weeks, or another seventh part of their time. Then the sabbatical year, when no agricultural labor was to be done, took another seventh of their time from their regular pursuits, as they were an agricultural people. This was the amount of time and property demanded by God, simply to sustain