CHAP. 11 r.
113
of about 1000 years before Christ. The Greeksare scarcely noticed in the historical books ofthe Old Testament . Some have thought theydiscovered allusions to that people in passagesw the prophetic writings; but the different namesgiven to the places make it very doubtful. Theknowledge which the Hebrews had acquired ofthe other parts of the world seems to have beenconfined to Egypt, Arabia , and that part ofcentral Asia which they comprehended underthe general names of Chaldea or Assyria . ThoseWere the countries most advanced in civilization,a nd they consequently attracted most attention ;"whilst Europe in general, not excepting their nearneighbours in Greece , must have been overlookeda s barbarians, if their name had ever reached theIsraelites .
Having thus endeavoured to account for thescarcity of the precious metals in Greece at ane arly age, we may proceed to consider how itc °uld have happened, that at a correspondentPeriod so large a quantity of them should havebeen collected, as the sacred writers representto have been possessed by the Israelites whenl bey became settled in Palestine. The institu-ti°n of archons in Athens, under which the firstste Ps towards improvement were made, nearlyc °rresponds with the period in which Saul , thefi rst king of the Israelites , was installed in that
v OL. i. I