If, then, history does not show us the ancient nations employing iron for their arms and instruments, it is because they were unable to prepare it. Even in the middle ages, we find copper in use for arms, because the nations that employed it, could not conquer the difficulties that attend the preparation of iron. The books of Moses, however, show that iron was known at that era to the Egyptians, and the distinction he draws between it and brass, seems in favour of our view of the origin of that which was then employed. The stones of the promised land were to be iron, but brass was to be dug from the hills. Twelve hundred years before Christ, if we receive the testimony of Homer, who, if he be rejected as an historian, must still be admitted as a faithful painter of manners. The Greeks used an alloy of copper for their arms, but were unacquainted with iron, which they estimated of much higher value. Autar Pêleidês thêchen solon autochoônon, hon prin men riptaske mega sthenos Êetiônos. Alla êtoi ton epephne podarchos dios Achilleus, Ton d aget ennêessi sun alloisin chteatessin. Stê d orthos chai muthon en Argeioisin eeipen. Ornusth, hoi chai toutou aethlou peirêsesthe! &c. Iliad, Book XXIII, 1. 826. From this passage and the following lines, we learn the two-fold fact: 1. That a mass of iron of no greater weight than could be used as a quoit, by a man of great strength, was esteemed of sufficient value to be cited as an important article in the spoil of a prince: 2. That its use was confined to agricultural purposes, and not applied in war. Hence the more valuable form steel, and its tempering, were unknown. Five hundred years later, Lycurgus attempted to introduce the use of iron, as money, into Sparta. The reasons usually cited for this act, do not seem to apply; and we ought not to accuse that lawgiver of the want of knowledge in political economy that is usually ascribed to him, in endeavouring to give a base material a conventional value to which it was not entitled. The iron was still, probably, more costly than brass, and the error of Lycurgus did not lie in ascribing to it a value beyond its actual cost, but in depriving it of the property of convertibility to useful purposes, which was necessary to maintain its price. In the construction of the temple by Solomon, 130 years before the æra of Lycurgus, iron was employed in great abundance; and, from the cost lavished upon that building, we are almost warranted in considering it as still bearing a high value, even in that country, so far in the advance of Greece in the arts of civilized life. Herodotus ascribes the discovery of the art of welding iron to Glaucus of Chio, 430 years before the Christian æra. But, before this period, the Greeks had carried the art of working it into Italy, Spain, and Africa; and the famous mines of Elba, that are still worked, were probably opened 700 years before Christ.