2 THE RECORDS OF THE

referred to as the father of all such as handle theharp and organ, and Tubal-cain as an instructor ofevery artificer in brass and iron. To this mav beadded, the knowledge the earliest people possessedof the art of wine-making, of navigation and ship-building, as implied in the formation of the ark ofNoah, of building and architecture, in the erectionof the city and tower of Babel , of the making ofarms for trained fighting-men, of images, of camels’furniture, and of chariots of war. And if we descendto the date assigned by Dr. Good 1 to the Book ofJob , namely, 1200 years after the flood, it iscertain that at that epoch metals were extractedfrom the earth and used for domestic purposes, forinstruments of war, and for money; that variousmusical instruments were known, that written cha-racters were in common use, that astronomy wascultivated as a science, and that mankind unques-tionably were not living in the simple patriarchalstate, since different ranks in society are in severalinstances familiarly mentioned; whilst it is at thesame time quite evident, that the degree of intel-lectual acquirement and of refinement which wouldallow of the composition of the work itself, could nothave been low in the scale of human cultivation. bConsidering these facts, and reasoning from the generalimprovement of society in all ages, where men have

1 Good’s Book of Job , p. 46.-

vol. i. p. 52.

J* Beke’s Origiues Biblicae,