had previously been a unity in any sense of the word is doubtful.  On the other hand, the basis of the unification of the tribes must certainly have been laid before the conquest of Palestine proper; for with that it broke up, though the memory of it continued.  At the same time it must not be supposed that all the twelve tribes already existed side be side in Kadesh.  The sons of the concubines of Jacob—­Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher—­manifestly do not pertain to Israel in the same sense as do those of Leah and Rachel; probably they were late arrivals and of very mixed origin.  We know, besides, that Benjamin was not born until afterwards, in Palestine.  If this view be correct, Israel at first consisted of seven tribes, of which one only, that of Joseph, traced its descent to Rachel, though in point of numbers and physical strength it was the equal of all the others together, while in intellectual force it surpassed them.  The remaining six were the sons of Leah:—­Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah; Issachar, Zebulon.  They are always enumerated in this order; the fact that the last two are also invariably mentioned apart from the rest and after Joseph has its explanation in geographical considerations.

The time of Moses is invariably regarded as the properly creative period in Israel’s history, and on that account also as giving the pattern and norm for the ages which followed.  In point of fact the history of Israel must be held to have begun then, and the foundations of a new epoch to have been laid.  The prophets who came after gave, it is true, greater distinctness to the peculiar character of the nation, but they did not make it; on the contrary, it made them.  Again, it is true that the movement which resulted in the establishment of the monarchy brought together for the first time into organic unity the elements which previously had existed only in an isolated condition; but Israel’s sense of national personality was a thing of much earlier origin, which even in the time of the judges bound the various tribes and families together, and must have had a great hold on the mind of the nation, although there was no formal and binding constitution to give it support.  When the Israelites settled in Palestine they found it inhabited by a population superior to themselves both in numbers and in civilisation, which they did not extirpate, but on the contrary gradually subdued and absorbed.  The process was favoured by affinity of race and similarity of speech; but, however far it went, it never had the effect of making Israelites Canaanites; on the contrary, it made Canaanites Israelites.  Notwithstanding their inferiority, numerical and otherwise, they maintained their individuality, and that without the support of any external organisation.  Thus a certain inner unity actually subsisted long before it had found any outward political expression; it goes back to the time of Moses, who is to be regarded as its author.