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CHAI>. III.

were unacquainted with agriculture, and ignorantof laws to secure the possession of property.Their associations were too slight to afford pro-tection to the weak against the strong; andthose only were safe from invasion who inhabitedthe most rocky and barren spots of ground, suchas Attica, where the inhabitants, from havingremained undisturbed for a long time, took thename Autothones, or indigenous people. Theancient governments of Greece were most rudeand barbarous; every city and almost everysmall town and village being a petty tyranny,governed by a chief, to whom the title of kingwas given. If some improvements had beenmade in the several countries or kingdoms intowhich Greece became progressively divided, be-tween the time of Pelasgus or of Abraham, andthat of the epoch of the Olympiads, or of Uzziah ,king of Judah, the progress was not such as tocreate any doubts of the great superiority of theHebrew people over the Greeks, in civilization,in government, in the arts of life, as well as inreligious feelings and opinions. That some ofthe Greek nations, and especially the Athenians,at a period subsequent to the reign of Solomon,advanced at a rapid pace, whilst the Hebrewsremained stationary or retrograded, can be noobjection to the general veracity of the view,now under consideration, of the quantity of theprecious metals accumulated at the given period