DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0739
GENERAL HISTORY, &c
PART I.
In tracing the progress of human improvement and civilization, we shall find that
both tradition and history point to the East, as the source from which they first pro-
ceeded towards the West. It is entirely foreign from our purpose to give any account
of the different nations in the East, among whom the arts of life were first cultivated
with success ; but as the Egyptians and Phoenicians were known to have had frequent
intercourse with Greece at a very early period, a short detail of their policy and pur-
suits will form no improper introduction to an account of the early Grecian states.
The Egyptians had early established among them a regular government, and many
just and equitable laws, both for the protection of property and the security of the
people's rights. They had also an institution of great weight in the state, that of
the priesthood ; an order of men to whom were entrusted the ceremonies of religion
and the mysteries of their national faith, embodied into a complex and multifarious
system. From the leisure and opportunities they enjoyed, they early applied them-
selves to the cultivation of letters and science, which, by the political institutions of
the country, were confined to them alone, and which they communicated, without re-
serve or mystery, to those only who were properly initiated.—From the nature of the
climate and soil of Egypt, it is evident that agriculture must have been early under-
stood, as the Nile, by its inundations, prevented the possibility of pasturing the ground,
or raising any other productions than corn and other annual plants. Of these in fa-
vourable seasons, the produce was great, and admitted of exportation to other coun-
tries less bountifully supplied. Phoenicia, with which an intercourse by sea had been
early established, seems to have taken off the redundant supply of these productions
in exchange for other commodities, particularly timber, with which the contiguous
country abounded, and which was an article of great scarcity in Egypt. By this mu-
tual communication between the two countries, an impulse was given to the commerce
of both ; and the art of navigation, confined at first, as we may suppose, to short at-
tempts along the coasts, was thereby greatly improved. By degrees, the Phoenicians
extended their voyages along the coast of the Mediterranean, and even as far as the
Atlantic Ocean ; bartered their own goods, which were more calculated for shew
than real use, for the natural productions of the countries which they visited ; plant-
ed colonies and formed permanent settlements in places most favourable for commerce.
While Egypt and Phoenicia were thus opening an intercourse with each other and
with various tribes along the coast, the inhabitants of Greece, probably migrating
hordes from the deserts of Scythia, were ignorant of the most necessary arts ; lived
upon the spontaneous fruit? of the earth ; clothed themselves with skins of ani-
mals which they happened to kill in the chace and -haltered themselves from the in-
clemency of the seasons and incidental storms in thickets or caverns. In this tate,
or but little removed from this state, they were discovered by the P,iceu>cia i and
Egyptian navigators, who found in the natural productions of the soil, among the
rude arts of the natives, and even the natives themselves, objects of commccial pro-
fit, which tempted them to renew their visits at different times. The advantages,
however, to be derived from such a transient intercourse must have operated slowly
towards civilizi ig the Greeks, had other circumstances not combined in their favour.
Colonies from Egypt, whether forced to quit their native country fi om intestine dis-
cord, or actuated by the restless spirit of adventurers, or obliged to seek for otherset-
tlements through a redundant population, established themselves ir various parts of
Greece and the adjacent islands, Of these islands, Crete seems to have been the
PART I.
In tracing the progress of human improvement and civilization, we shall find that
both tradition and history point to the East, as the source from which they first pro-
ceeded towards the West. It is entirely foreign from our purpose to give any account
of the different nations in the East, among whom the arts of life were first cultivated
with success ; but as the Egyptians and Phoenicians were known to have had frequent
intercourse with Greece at a very early period, a short detail of their policy and pur-
suits will form no improper introduction to an account of the early Grecian states.
The Egyptians had early established among them a regular government, and many
just and equitable laws, both for the protection of property and the security of the
people's rights. They had also an institution of great weight in the state, that of
the priesthood ; an order of men to whom were entrusted the ceremonies of religion
and the mysteries of their national faith, embodied into a complex and multifarious
system. From the leisure and opportunities they enjoyed, they early applied them-
selves to the cultivation of letters and science, which, by the political institutions of
the country, were confined to them alone, and which they communicated, without re-
serve or mystery, to those only who were properly initiated.—From the nature of the
climate and soil of Egypt, it is evident that agriculture must have been early under-
stood, as the Nile, by its inundations, prevented the possibility of pasturing the ground,
or raising any other productions than corn and other annual plants. Of these in fa-
vourable seasons, the produce was great, and admitted of exportation to other coun-
tries less bountifully supplied. Phoenicia, with which an intercourse by sea had been
early established, seems to have taken off the redundant supply of these productions
in exchange for other commodities, particularly timber, with which the contiguous
country abounded, and which was an article of great scarcity in Egypt. By this mu-
tual communication between the two countries, an impulse was given to the commerce
of both ; and the art of navigation, confined at first, as we may suppose, to short at-
tempts along the coasts, was thereby greatly improved. By degrees, the Phoenicians
extended their voyages along the coast of the Mediterranean, and even as far as the
Atlantic Ocean ; bartered their own goods, which were more calculated for shew
than real use, for the natural productions of the countries which they visited ; plant-
ed colonies and formed permanent settlements in places most favourable for commerce.
While Egypt and Phoenicia were thus opening an intercourse with each other and
with various tribes along the coast, the inhabitants of Greece, probably migrating
hordes from the deserts of Scythia, were ignorant of the most necessary arts ; lived
upon the spontaneous fruit? of the earth ; clothed themselves with skins of ani-
mals which they happened to kill in the chace and -haltered themselves from the in-
clemency of the seasons and incidental storms in thickets or caverns. In this tate,
or but little removed from this state, they were discovered by the P,iceu>cia i and
Egyptian navigators, who found in the natural productions of the soil, among the
rude arts of the natives, and even the natives themselves, objects of commccial pro-
fit, which tempted them to renew their visits at different times. The advantages,
however, to be derived from such a transient intercourse must have operated slowly
towards civilizi ig the Greeks, had other circumstances not combined in their favour.
Colonies from Egypt, whether forced to quit their native country fi om intestine dis-
cord, or actuated by the restless spirit of adventurers, or obliged to seek for otherset-
tlements through a redundant population, established themselves ir various parts of
Greece and the adjacent islands, Of these islands, Crete seems to have been the