OF GOLD AND SILVER. 



to his family, he presented to his younger and 

 favourite brother three hundred pieces of 

 silver *. 



Though gold was known at that early period 

 and its value highly estimated, we find no inti- 

 mation which can lead to the inference that it 

 performed the function of money, either by being 

 used as the common measure of value for other 

 commodities, or by being employed as the me- 

 dium for exchanging one kind of goods for 

 another. 



The author of the book of Job, whether, as 

 some have supposed, a contemporary of Abraham, 

 or, as others have thought, of a date some hun- 

 dred years later, is one of the oldest writers 

 whose works have been transmitted entire to 

 the present day. He was not only acquainted 

 with gold arid silver, but was accurately in- 

 formed of the manner in which they were pro- 

 cured. " Surely," says he, " there is a vein for 

 the silver and a place for the gold where they 

 fine it." He farther adds, " that the earth hath 

 dust of gold 2 ." Though living in a country 

 which yields none of the precious metals, he was 

 thus familiarly acquainted with the fact, that 

 silver was found in veins, and gold commonly 

 in small particles. 



1 Genesis, cap. xlv. v. 22. 



a Job, cap. xxiii. v. 1 and 6, also 15. 17, 18, 19, 20. 



