Natural'Historical Collections. 135. 



the revolutions which happened in Greece, when the Heraclidae conquered the 

 Peloponesus. lonians, Dorians, and /Eolians left their country, and founded a 

 great number of cities in Asia, some of which, as Smyrna, Ephesus, and Mile- 

 turn, soon acquired great importance. 



When there were Greek settlements on both sides of the Egean Sea, the fre. 

 quent intercourse which took place between them gave a new stimulus to com- 

 merce, and soon brought in the riches of the east. The new cities were soon in a 

 state to send out colonies, and several tribes went forth to settle along the shores 

 of the Black Sea. 



A little more than two centuries after the conquest of the Peloponesus by the 

 Heraclidaj, Greece was again agitated by new disturbances, the result of which 

 was the almost universal abolition of royalty. This revolution gave rise to a new 

 emigration, which, taking a direction the reverse of that taken by the others, be. 

 took itself to the shores of Italy, and settled in the country which afterwards bore 

 the name of Magna Grsecia. These Italian colonies, which soon became ex- 

 tremely rich and polished, were an additipnal means of civilization for central 

 Greece. 



"We at length come to an epoch marked by two events, which exercised a great 

 influence upon the progress of science. The first is the re-establishment of the 

 intercourse with Egypt, which took place when Psammeticus took Greeks from 

 Asia JMinor into his armies as auxiliaries. The other is the war of the Persians 

 against the Greeks, tlie conquest of the colonies of Asia Minor, and the invasion 

 of central Greece itself, an undertaking which fortunately was not crowned with 

 success. 



About 600 years before Christ, Cyrus made himself master of Media. His 

 son Cambyses carried his arms towards Egypt, subjected the whole of that coun- 

 try, and reduced tlie priests to a state of great degradation. The effects of such 

 conquests are generally less severe, because the victors, yielding to the ascendancy 

 of civilization, adopt the manners and customs of the vanquished. In Egypt, a 

 union of this kind could not take place. The Persians, whose religion was 

 founded on the doctrine of the two principles, were in this respect evidently supe- 

 rior to the Egyptians, and had moreover a horror for the worship of that people, 

 on account of the honours which they paid to images. They, therefore, exercised 

 the most cruel persecutions against them. 



The same motives rendered their yoke heavy upon the Greek colonies of Asia 

 Minor, when Darius, the successor of Cambyses, conquered them. Oppression 

 arrested among them the progress of the arts and of poetry, as in Egypt it had 

 extinguished the philosophical and religious doctrines. The conquest of Darius 

 threw upon Central Gieece a multitude of emigrants, who carried thither the know- 

 ledge which they had acquired in Egypt ; for, as soon as the gates of that country 

 were thrown open by Psammeticus, Thales, Pythagoras, and several other sages, 

 hastened to the school of the Egyptian priests. It may therefore be said, that, if 

 the successes of the Persians disquieted Greece, they in no degree injured its ci- 

 vilization, but rather contributed to its improvement. 



Xerxes, who reigned after Darius, attacked Central Greece ; but he was re- 

 pulsed, and from this period commences the most brilliant epoch of that country. 

 In fact, philosophy, which was at first cultivated in the colonies of Asia Minor, 

 and then in the ItaUan colonies, at length concentrated itself at Athens, and in a 

 small number of years arrived tliere at a high degree of perfection. 



The Greek philosophy is not derived from a single root. It had no uniformity, 

 because it was not confided to a single body of teachers. It was derived, it i« 

 true, through different channels from the ancient Egyptian philosophy ; but the 

 sages who went to drink at this source, modified each in his own manner tlie 

 doctrines which were communicated to them, and formed various schools. 



The oldest, the Ionian school, was founded by Thales, about the year 600 b&. 

 fore Christ. It possessed a great number of followers in the cities of Asia Mi- 

 nor, Ephesus, Miletum, &c. The most celebrated of aU was Anaxagoras, who 



