i o 



Before Chriil 1706 — i49i. 



lifned country to great perfection. Flax, fine linen *, garments of cot- 

 ton, rings and jewels of gold and filver, works in all kinds of metals, 

 iron, the moft difficult of all metals in the procefs of preparing it for 

 ufe, chariots for luxury, and chariots for war, occur in the hiftory of 

 this period, written by Mofes. Having no vines in their country, they 

 probably now, but certainly in the age of Herodotus, (L. ii, c. 76) 

 made a liquor from barley, which the Greeks, having no appropriate 

 name for it, called barley-wine. To tliefe may be added the great ma- 

 nufaftory of bricks, in which the Ifraelites are fuppofed to have been 

 chiefly employed during their fervltude in Egypt, and alfo their vaft 

 buildings, and gigantic ftatues, wherein ftupendous bulk, rather than 

 elegance of architecture or iculpture, feem to have been confidered as 

 the flandard of pertedion. [Gcfiejis, cc. 41, 44. — Exod. cc. 9, 11, 12, 

 14. — Num. c. -^^. — Bcut. cc. 4, 19.] Literature alfo appears to have 

 been in a very flourifliing flate among the Egyptians of thefe ages, at 

 leafl when compared with feme of the neighbouring nations : and 

 hence, in order to give a high idea of the accomplifhments of Mofes, it 

 is faid, that he was ' learned in all the wifdom of the Egyptians f .' 

 iAas, f. 7.] 



1556 — ('ecrops, a native of Sais in Egypt, led a colony into Greece, 

 and having married the daughter of Adeus king of Attica, he became 

 his fuccefljc>r in the kingdom. He appears to have paid fome attention 

 to naval affairs, whereby he was enabled, when his fubjeds were diftrefs- 

 ed by famine, to import corn from Lydia, and alfo from Sicily, which 

 has in all ages been difl:ingui{hed for its extraordinary fertility, fo as to 

 be cfteemed by the poets the native country of Ceres the goddefs of 

 corn. Cecrops founded twelve villages, which afterwards coaleiced into 

 the one city of Athens ; and he perfuaded his roving and indolent fub- 

 jeds to fettle in and near them, in order to unite their forces againll the 

 Boeotian marauders and Carian pirates. He alfo pointed out to them the 

 benefits of induftry, and taught them the principles of agriculture. 

 Such was the origin of the antient and illuflirious city of Athens. 



Cadmus arrived in Greece from Phccnicia, and is faid to have taught 

 the Greeks the ufe of letters:}:, and the art of working metals, both hi- 



■* The fupcrior quality of the Egyptian linen, been rxtoUed nuicli beyond their real merit, bc- 



which was univtrfally allowed by all the antitnts, caufe they appealed to great advantage in the cyc3 



who fiiw it, and compared it with the mannfae- of the early Greeks and Ifraelites. Such menu- 



lures of other countries, has been calkd in quef- mt nts of their art, as Hill remain to be compared 



lion in modern times ; lecaufe the bandages of a with ihofe of later and modern times, oblige us to 



iiuimmy examined by Dodlor Halliy were found wonder what the anticnts found in them worthy of 



only equal to linen wortli 274 a yard So a phi- fo much admiration. 



lolophtr of the thirtieth century, who (liall flnnjble \ Several learned men arc perfuaded that the ufe 



upon a bit of oziiabnrg of the eighteenth, may of letters was at leaft in foine degree known to the 



deir.onflrate that no belter linen was then ufed in Greeks before the arrival of Cadnnis. The ear- 



Urilaln. Hell letters ufed in Greece were probably thofe, 



f It mud be admitted, however, that the learn- which Plato calls Hyperborean (i. e. northern) and 



ing and fcicnce of the Egyptbns liavc in all ages defcribes as different from the letters of his own 



