iv PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE 85 



the Dardanelles, where he expected to find the city 

 of his dreams. For seventeen hundred years archaeo- 

 logists had been in academic dispute as to the precise 

 position of the city, but Schliemann sought for evidence 

 by actual excavation. He was somewhat of a visionary, 

 but he had sufficient knowledge and insight to know 

 which sites to explore, and he passed all the earth from 

 a site through a sieve, so that nothing of significance 

 should be overlooked. Literary genius, it has been 

 said, is erratic and incalculable, but genius works in 

 science through clear discernment of means and by 

 infinite pains. By these methods Schliemann was able 

 to secure a splendid collection of antiquities, and to 

 disclose a fortress which he believed to be the Pergamos 

 of Troy. Later investigations by Dr. Dorpfeld have 

 shown that the Troy of Homer's epic was a more exten- 

 sive city than that identified by Schliemann, and that 

 as many as nine different towns or villages existed at 

 various times on or around the mound of Hissarlik ; 

 but it was Schliemann who began the accumulation of 

 scientific evidence that enabled the site of the city to be 

 determined. 



In geographical exploration the spirit of adventure 

 has, perhaps, been the stimulating influence more often 

 than the desire to increase scientific knowledge, but 

 whatever the aims, the results have been for the benefit 

 of mankind. Columbus sails west into unknown seas 

 and reaches the Bahamas ; John and Sebastian Cabot 

 land on North America and open a new world to 

 Merchant Venturers ; Vasco da Gama, by sailing round 

 the Cape, reaches India and shows the door to the East ; 

 and Magellan's ship circumnavigates the globe, though 

 the daring explorer did not live to complete the voyage. 

 Of a somewhat different type of maritime explorer was 



