152 



ftll the sons of Jon bordered on each other; and, I be- 

 lieve, it generally happened, that the progeny of each of 

 the original patriarchs, Japhet, Seni, and Cham, settled 

 at a great distance, from that of the other Patriarchs; but 

 the progeny of cadi of the sons of the same Patriarch, for 

 instance of Japhet, settled at a less considerable distance 

 from each other; and the descendants of each of the 

 grandsons, for instance the descendants from Javau, set- 

 tled at a still less distance from each other. 



Elisah, in the Samaritan copy, is written Helas;* and 

 from him, after some ages, for reasons we shall presently 

 mention, the Greeks were then called Hellenes. The Hel- 

 lenes, then, not being permanently exposed to barbarians, 

 as the other descendants of Jon were, preserved the Greek 

 language unmixed. Greece, before the arrival of the Hel- 

 lenes, was inhabited by various barbarian tribes; as Strabo 

 informs us from Hecateus;-)- of whom the most powerful 

 were the Pelasgi, who originally dwelled in the maritime 

 parts, afterwards called lonia.J Hence, it is plain, by the 

 testimony of a profane historian also, that the descendants 

 of Jon passed into Greece, from the continent of Lesser 

 Asia, after they had expelled the Pelasgi, who inhabited 

 the coasts afterwards called Ionia. The Pelasgi, thus ex- 

 pelled from Ionia, passed, probably, into the country, af- 

 terwards called Attica, as being nearest to them; but this 



being 



* See Newcome on Ezechiel, xxvii. 8. 



t Lib. VII. p. 321. 



t Strabo, Lib. XIII. 621, and Lib. V. 220, 221. 



