heir varying occupations;
the neighboring country gentlemen, and the local politics; the recurring
festival at Olympia with its stream of visitors; the pleasures of
hospitable entertainment; the constant sacrifices before the cedar image
of Artemis in her temple--these things, and above all the serene
satisfaction of successful literary labors, combined to form an enviable
sum total of sober happiness during many years." There can be no doubt
that this was the first great period of his literary activity, though he
may have edited, in early youth, his predecessor Thucydides, and
composed the first two books of his historical continuation entitled
"Hellenica." In his retreat at Skillus he composed a series of
"Dialogues," in what is termed the Socratic vein; "Memorials" of his
great master, a tract on household "Economy," another on a "Symposium,"
or feast, one called "Hiero," or on the Greek tyrant, and an account of
the "Laconian Polity," which he had so long admired and known. The tract
on "Hunting" also speaks the experience at Skillus. The tract "On the
Athenian State," preserved among his writings, is not from his hand, but
the work of an earlier writer.

With the sudden rise of the Theban power, and consequent depression of
Sparta, he and other settlers around Skillus were driven out by the
Eleans, and he lost his country-seat, with all its agreeable diversions.
But probably the ageing man did not feel the transference of his home to
Corinth so keenly as an English gentleman would. He was a thorough
Greek, and therefore intensely attached to city life, Elis, his adopted
country, being the only state which consisted of a country gentry.

In the next place, a daily thoroughfare such as the Isthmus, must have
been far more suitable for the collecting of historical evidence than
Skillus, where the crowd came by only once in four years. And then his
grown-up sons could find something more serious to do than hunting deer,
boars, and hares in the glades of Elis. He may have known, too, that his
chances of restoration to Athens were improving, and that he would do
well to be within easy reach of friends in that city. Indeed we find
that the rescinding of exile soon followed, and so he was able to send
his two sons to do cavalry duty for Athens (and Sparta) against the
Thebans. It is, indeed, likely that the young men were enrolled as
Spartan volunteers. He himself must have kept very close to his literary
work; for in the