siting the Canaries and Azores, and
bringing tin from the British Islands. They used every precaution to
keep their secret to themselves. The adventurous Greeks followed those
mysterious navigators step by step; but in the time of Homer they were
so restricted to the eastern basin that Italy may be said to have been
to them an unknown land. The Phocaeans first explored the western basin;
one of their colonies built Marseilles. At length Coleus of Samos passed
through the frowning gateway of Hercules into the circumfluous sea, the
Atlantic Ocean. No little interest attaches to the first colonial
cities; they dotted the shores from Sinope to Saguntum, and were at once
trading depots and foci of wealth. In the earliest times the merchant
was his own captain, and sold his commodities by auction at the place to
which he came. The primitive and profitable commerce of the
Mediterranean was peculiar--it was for slaves, mineral products, and
articles of manufacture; for, running coincident with parallels of
latitude, its agricultural products were not very varied, and the wants
of its populations the same. But tin was brought from the Cassiterides,
amber from the Baltic, and dyed goods and worked metals from Syria.
Wherever these trades centred, the germs of taste and intelligence were
developed; thus the Etruscans, in whose hands was the amber trade across
Germany, have left many relics of their love of art. Though a
mysterious, they were hardly a gloomy race, as a great modern author has
supposed, if we may judge from their beautiful remains.

[Sidenote: Effect of philosophical criticism.]

Added to the effect of geographical discovery was the development of
philosophical criticism. It is observed that soon after the first
Olympiad the Greek intellect very rapidly expanded. Whenever man reaches
a certain point in his mental progress, he will not be satisfied with
less than an application of existing rules to ancient events. Experience
has taught him that the course of the world to-day is the same as it was
yesterday; he unhesitatingly believes that this will also hold good for
to-morrow. He will not bear to contemplate any break in the mechanism of
history; he will not be satisfied with a mere uninquiring faith, but
insists upon having the same voucher for an old fact that he requires
for one that is new. Before the face of History Mythology cannot stand.

[Sidenote: Secession of literary men from the public faith.]

The op