the ancient nations, we may, from detached paffages in facred writ, afcertain the progrefs which had been made in it during the patriarchal times.

21. We know, from the history of civil fociety, that the commercial intercourfe between men muit be pretty confid erable, before the metals come to be considered as the me dium of trade; and yet this was the cafe even in the days of Abraham.

22. It appears, however, from the relations which ef tablish this fact, that the use of money had not been of an ancient date; it had no mark to ascertain its weight or finenefs and in a contract for a burying-place, in exchange for which Abraham gave filver, the metal is weighed in prefence of all the people.

23. But as commerce improved, and bargains of this fort became more common, this practice was laid afide, and the quantity of filver was afcertained by a particular mark, which faved the trouble of weighing it. But this does not appear to have taken place till the time of Jacob, the second from Abraham.

24. The refilah, of which we read in his time, was a piece of money, ftamped with the figure of a lamb, and of a precise and stated value. It appears, from the history of Jofeph, that the commerce between different nations was by this time regularly carried on.

25. The Ifhmaelites and Midianites, who bought him of his brethren, were travelling merchants, refembling the modern caravans, who carried fpices, perfumes, and other rich commodities, from their own country into Egypt. The fame obfervations may be made from the book of Job, who, according to the best writers, was a native of Arabia Felix, and also a contemporary with Jacob.

26. He fpeaks of the roads of Thema and Saba, that is, of the caravans which fet out from thofe cities of Arabia. If we reflect, that the commodities of this country were rather the luxuries than the conveniences of life, we shall have reason to conclude, that the countries into which they were fent for fale, and particularly Egypt, were confiderably improved in arts and refinement: for people do not think of luxuries, till the useful arts have made high advancement among them.

27. In fpeaking of commerce, we ought carefully to distinguish between the fpecies of it which is carried on by land, or inland commerce, and that which is carried on by fea which laft kind of traffic is both later in its origin, and flower in its progrefs.

28. Had the defcendants of Noah been left to their own ingenuity, and received no tincture of the antediluvian knowledge from their wife ancestors, it is improbable that they fhould have ventured on navigating the open feas fo foon as we find they did.

29. That branch of his pofterity, who fettled on the coafts of Palestine, were the firft people of the world among whom navigation was made fubfervient to commerce: they were distinguished by a word, which, in the Hebrew tongue, fignifies merchants, and are the fame nation afterwards known to the Greeks by the name of Phoenicians. Inhabiting a barren and ungrateful foil, they fet themselves to better their fituation by cultivating the arts.

30. Commerce was their capital object: and, with all the writers of pagan antiquity, they pafs for the inventors of whatever is fubfervient to it. At the time of Abraham they were regarded as a powerful nation; their maritime commerce is mentioned by Jacob in his laft words to his children; and, if we may believe Herodotus in a matter of fuch remote antiquity, the Phoenicians had by this time nav igated the coafts of Greece, and carried off the daughter of Inachus.

The arts of agriculture, commerce and navigation, fuppofe the knowledge of feveral others; aftronomy, for inftance, or a knowledge of the fituation and revolutions of the heavenly bodies, is neceffary both to agriculture and navigation; that of working metals, to commerce; and fo of other arts.

32. In fact, we find that before the death of Jacob, feveral nations were fo well acquainted with the revolutions of the moon, as to measure by them the duration of their year.

33. It had been an univerfal custom among all the nations of antiquity as well as the Jews, to divide time into the portion of a week, or feven days: this undoubtedly arofe from the tradition with regard to the origin of the world. It was natural for thofe nations who led a paftoral M

life, or who lived under a ferene sky, to obferve that the various appearances of the moon were completed nearly in four weeks: hence the divifion of a month.

34. Those people again who lived by agriculture, and who had gotten among them the divifion of the month, would naturally remark, that twelve of thefe brought back the fame temperature of the air, or the fame feafons: hence the origin of what is called the lunar year, which has every where taken place in the infancy of science.

35. This, together with the obfervation of the fixed ftars, which, as we learn from the book of Job, muft have been very ancient, naturally paved the way for the discovery of the folar year, which at that time would be thought an immenfe improvement in aftronomy.

36. But with regard to thofe branches of knowledge which we have mentioned, it is to be remembered, that they were peculiar to the Egyptians, and a few nations of Afia. Europe offers a frightful fpectacle during this period.

37. Who could believe that the Greeks, who in later a ges became the patterns of politenefs and every elegant art, were defcended from a favage race of men, traverfing the woods and wilds, inhabiting the rocks and caverns, a wretched prey to wild animals, and fometimes to one another? This, however, is no more than what was to be expected.

38. The defcendants of Noah, who removed at a great distance from the plains of Shinar, loft all connection with the civilized part of mankind. Their pofterity became still more ignorant; and the human mind was at length funk into an abyfs of mifery and wretchedness.

39. We might naturally expect, that from the death of Jacob, and as we advance forward in time, the history of the great empires of Egypt and Affyria would emerge from their obfcurity. This, however, is far from being the cafe: we only get a glimpfe of them, and they difappear entirely for many ages.

40. After the reign of Ninius, who fucceeded Semiramis and Ninus in the Affyrian throne, we find an astonishing blank in the hiftory of this empire, for no less than eight hundred years. The filence of ancient history on this fubject, is commonly attributed to the foftnefs and effeminacy of the fucceffors of Ninus, whofe lives afforded no events worthy of narration.

41. Wars and commotions are the great themes of the hiftorian, while the gentle and happy reigns of wife princes pafs unobferved and unrecorded. Sefoftris, a prince of wonderful abilities, is fuppofed to have mounted the throne of Egypt after Amenophis, who was fwallowed in the Red Sea about the year before Chrift one thousand four hundred and ninety-two; by his affiduity and attention, the civil and military establishments of the Egyptians received very confiderable improvements.

42. Egypt, in the time of Sefoftris, and his immediate fucceffors, was in all probability the most powerful kingdom on earth, and, according to the beft calculation, is fuppofed to have contained twenty-feven millions of inhabitants. But ancient hiftory often excites, without gratifying our curiofity: for, from the reign of Sefoftris to that of Bocchoris, in the year before Chrift seven hundred and eighty-one, we have little knowledge of even the names of the intermediate princes.

43. If we judge, however, from collateral circumftances, the country muft ftill have continued in a very flourishing condition; for Egypt continued to pour forth her colonies into diftant nations.

44. Athens, that feat of learning and politeness, that fchool for all who afpire after wisdom, owes its foundation to Cecrops, who landed in Greece with an Egyptian colony, and endeavored to civilize the rough manners of the original inhabitants. From the inftitutions which Cecrops established among the Athenians, it is eafy to infer in what fituations they must have lived before his arrival.

45. The laws of marriage, with which few nations are fo barbarous as to be altogether unacquainted, were not known in Greece. Mankind, like the beasts of the field, were propagated by accidental rencounters, and with little knowledge of thofe to whom they owed their generation. Cranaus, who fucceeded Cecrops in the kingdom of Attica, purfued the fame beneficial plan, and endeavored by wife inftitutions, to bridle the keen paffions of a rudé people.

46. Whilft thefe princes ufed their endeavors for civiliz ing this corner of Greece, the other kingdoms, into which this country, by the natural boundaries of rocks, mountains and rivers, is divided, and which had been already peopled

by colonies from Egypt and the east, began to affume fome appearance of form and regularity.

47. This engaged Amphictyon, one of thofe uncommon geniufes who appear in the world for the benefit of the age in which they live, and the admiration of pofterity, to think of fome expedient by which he might unite in one plan of politics the feveral independent kingdoms of Greece, and thereby deliver them from thofe inteftine divifions, which must render them a prey to one another, or to the first ene, my who might think proper to invade them.

48. Thefe reflections he communicated to the kings, or leaders of the different territories; and by his eloquence and addrefs engaged twelve cities to unite together for their mutual prefervation. Two deputies from each of these cities affembled twice a year at Thermopyla, and formed what, after the name of its founder, was called the Amphictyonic council.

49. In this affembly, whatever related to the general in, tereft of the confederacy was difcuffed, and finally deter mined. Amphictyon likewife, fenfible that thofe political connections are the most lafting which are ftrengthened by religion, committed to the Amphictyons, the care of the temple at Delphi, and of the riches which, from the dedications of thofe who confulted the oracle, had been amaff, ed in it.

50. This affembly, conftituted on fuch folid foundations, was the great fpring of action in Greece, while that country preferved its independence; and, by the union which it infpired among the Greeks, enabled them to defend their liberties against all the force of the Perfian empire.

51. Confidering the circumstances of the age in which it was inftituted, the Amphictyonic council is perhaps the moft remarkable political cftablishment which ever took place among mankind. In the year before Chrift one thoufand three hundred and twenty-two, the Ifthmian games were inftituted at Corinth; and one thoufand three hundred and three the famous Olympic games by Pelops.

52. The Greek ftates, who formerly had no connection with one another, except by mutual inroads and hoftilities, foon began to act with concert, and to undertake diftant expeditions for the general intereft of the community. Thẹ