CHAP. HI. PRECIOUS METALS. 



of Jehovah. None of it could be destined to 

 profane purposes without incurring the guilt of 

 treason against that great Being who was at 

 once their spiritual and their temporal sovereign. 



The metallic wealth which \vas collected at 

 the time of Solomon's greatness had not arisen 

 solely from the spoil of the nations which the 

 Hebrews had subdued, or the profits arising 

 from their agricultural pursuits. We find that 

 they had already entered into commercial opera- 

 tions in the reign of David; and the extension 

 of them seems to have opened channels by which 

 gold and silver flowed in more copious streams, 

 or at least at a more rapid pace, than they could 

 have done by the rude operations of war, or the 

 calm pursuits of agriculture. 



At first the Hebrew nation was simply an 

 agricultural people ; all the institutions of their 

 legislator, Moses, were calculated to preserve 

 them in that state. They had none but domestic 

 manufactures. Little or no division of labour, 

 such as manufactures and commerce require, 

 could take place where each family was fixed on 

 a small portion of land, which was entailed on 

 them, and could not be so alienated as not to 

 return to the original holders at the end of a 

 term of fifty years. " It was a productive soil, 

 poetically described as a land flowing with milk 

 and honey. As the whole population was de- 

 voted to the labours of the field, the cultivation 



