the
olive, the almond, the date, figs of many kinds, the orange, the
pomegranates, and many other fruit-trees, flourished in the greatest
luxuriance. Great quantity of honey was collected. The balm tree,
which produced the opobalsamum, a great object of trade, was probably
introduced from Arabia in the time of Solomon. It nourished about
Jericho and in Gilead."

This is but a portion of the sketch. The wealth and commerce of the
country is thus told:

"The only public revenue of the Hebrew commonwealth was that of the
sacred treasury, the only public expenditure that of the religious
worship. This was supported by a portion of the spoils taken in war;
the first fruits, which in their institution were no more than could
be carried in a basket, at a later period were rated to be one part in
sixty; the redemption of the first born, and of whatever was vowed to
the Lord. Almost every thing of the last class might be commuted for
money according to a fixed scale. The different annual festivals were
well calculated to promote internal commerce: maritime or foreign
trade, is scarcely mentioned in the law, excepting in two obscure
prophetic intimations of advantages, which the tribes of Dan and
Zebulun were to derive from their maritime situation. On this subject
the lawgiver could have learned nothing in Egypt. The commerce of that
country was confined to the inland caravan trade. The Egyptians hated
or dreaded the sea, which they considered either the dwelling of the
evil principle, or the evil principle itself. At all events, the
Hebrews at this period were either blind to the maritime advantages of
their situation, or unable to profit by them. The ports were the last
places they conquered. Sidon, if indeed within their boundary, never
lost its independence; Tyre, if it existed, was a town too obscure to
be named; Ecdippa and Acco remained in the power of the Canaanites;
Joppa is not mentioned as a port till much later. The manufactures of
the people supplied their own wants; they brought from Egypt the arts
of weaving woollens and linens, stuffs made of fine goats' hair, and
probably cotton; of dying in various colours, and bleaching, and of
embroidering; of many kinds of carpenter's work; of building, some
of the rules of which were regulated by law; of making earthenware
vessels; of working in iron, brass, and the precious metals, both
casting them and forming them with the tool; of gilding, engraving
seals, and vario