LESSONS IN GERMAN. 



and China, and filled its bazaars with Indian ware* and silk 

 fabrics, as well as with pearls and gems, spices and balaama, 

 ivory and gold, and goods of cotton and linon. The oomm<Klition 

 out in exchange oonaiated of rod coral and amber, dredgod from 

 tho Mediterranean ooaata, glaaa and metal work, and numberleaa 

 : ;al products valued in tho East. The inland of Crete, 

 for a considerable period, possessed an extensive commerce, and 

 is reported to have contained a hundred oitiea ; but it declined, 

 mid full into decay. The common proverb declared that tho 

 "Cretans were always liars," a character inconsistent with 

 sound commercial success. 



The island of Rhodes waa more celebrated. Ita climate was 

 very fine, and its soil produced excellent winea. A statue of 

 Apollo, called the Colossus of Rhodes, is said to have bestridden 

 the mouth of tho harbour. Its outstretched hand bore a beacon 

 light, to guide vessels at night. There were 320 tons of brass 

 ; its construction, which took twelve years to complete; 

 it stood 70 cubits or 105 feet high. The Colossus was shattered 

 by an earthquake, B.C. 224, after standing fifty-six years. 

 Fragments of it remained where it fell for nearly a thousand 

 years, when they were removed, on 900 camels, by a Jew, who 

 bought them of one of the generals of Caliph Othman. Rhodes 

 rose from its ruins, and, till the Romans destroyed its freedom, 

 continued to be the chief carrier of the Levant. Milotus, queen 

 of Asiatic Greece, standing near tho mouth of the river Meander, 

 boasted of eighty colonies. Its mariners, in order to extend its 

 commerce, ventured beyond the Pillars of Hercules ; but its 

 chief settlements were in the Block Sea. It possessed immense 

 flocks, and was noted for its woollen fabrics. It was the em- 

 porium for Lydia and Phrygia, and from it the products of these 

 districts were distributed abroad. The city, after offering a vain 

 resistance, was left in ruins by Alexander the Great. 



Colonists from Corinth founded Syracuse, which eventually 

 became the capital of Sicily. It was one of the most famous 

 Greek colonies, and its wealth and grandeur were based, as in 

 the parent state, upon commerce. When most prosperous it 

 had a circuit of twenty-two miles, and the splendour of its 

 edifices, built of stone quarried in the neighbourhood, was not 

 surpassed even by that of Carthage. The Athenians and 

 Carthaginians in turn besieged the city, but each met with a 

 disastrous repulse. Syracuse is celebrated as having been the 

 abode of Archimedes, who for more than two years, by hia 

 mechanical devices, aided his fellow-citizens in withstanding the 

 Romans. After its capture by Marcellus, in 212 B.C., Syracuse 

 became the chief town of the Roman province of Sicily. 



We are now in a position to consider the benefits which were 

 conferred on the world at large by the commerce and refinements 

 of the Greeks. In this investigation our interest centres in 

 Athens. Spartan pride and roughness must be passed by. The 

 contempt for industry, and the want of sound economy, exhibited 

 in the arbitrary laws of Lycurgus might make a state feared, 

 but could not make it truly great or lasting. 



Baron Liebig says : " The source of wealth, trade, and power 

 of the Grecian states, when the latter were in their prime, was a 

 highly-developed and widely-spread industry. Corinth produced 

 what would correspond to Birmingham and Sheffield wares ; 

 Athens was the centre of the manufactures which we now find 

 divided between Leeds, Staffordshire, and London, such as 

 woollen cloths, dyes, pottery, gold and silver utensils, and ships. 

 The citizens were manufacturers on the largest scale ship- 

 owners and merchants, who had their offices and factories along 

 the whole coasts of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The 

 men of science were the sons of the citizens, and thus became 

 familiar with trade, manufacture, and commerce. Thales was a 

 trader in oil, Socrates was a stonemason, Aristotle an apothe- 

 cary ; Plato and Solon were not strangers to trade. In ancient 

 Greece the learned man spoke tho same language as the trades- 

 man. The mind of the hitter had been as highly cultivated as 

 that of the philosopher, tho difference between them consisting 

 only in the direction of their knowledge. Democratic institu- 

 tions frequently brought them into personal intercourse. In 

 fact, tho thirty-eight chapters of ' Problems ' appear to be no 

 other than a series of questions from tradesmen, artists, musi- 

 cians, architects, and engineers, which Aristotle endeavoured to 

 solve, as far as his knowledge enabled him to do. Until the 

 time of Pericles, no other country of the ancient world united 

 the necessary conditions for the rise of science as they were 

 found in Greece, owing to its social state and to the intimate 



relationship that existed between the productive and : 

 ohusea. But Greece wot a slave itatt, and in slavery toy the 

 ban which contracted iti civilisation within Jixcd Ivmitt that 

 could not be extended." 



We owe to Greece the invention of coinage. Iron token*, to 

 which an artificial value waa affixed, were used in Sparta ; bras* 

 coins were used in other atatea. Athena from the first ismed 

 gold and silver coins, the standard of value being ao carefully 

 maintained that they paaaed current without question in every 

 state. 



Licences to follow certain trades originated in Athena, and 

 laws were made to discourage usury. Debtors were severely 

 dealt with. Deliberate fraud waa punished with death, and 

 bankrupts were sold and kept in bondage, till they had saved 

 enough to redeem themselves. Plato was in danger of being 

 thus enslaved for debt, but his friends ransomed him. A public 

 register of debts was kept. We must not forget, however, that 

 our own laws not long ago punished forgery and even more 

 venial crimes with death, and caused debtors to be imprisoned 

 for life, without giving them the chance of labouring for their 

 redemption. To Corinth we owe the appointment of consuls at 

 mercantile ports. The consuls were merchants who knew the 

 manners and customs of the people with whom their countrymen 

 had commercial dealings, and who could be relied on to arbitrate 

 justly when disputes or misunderstandings arose. 



Alexander the Great combined with his love of conquest a 

 desire to make Greek trade universal. He planned the conquest 

 of the East and Carthage, of Italy and Western Europe, a 

 group of states of which his native hind would be the centre, 

 and Babylon the great Asiatic emporium. His career, though 

 cut short at an early age, nevertheless contributed partially to 

 bring about this result ; inasmuch as the Greek garrisons 

 settling in the places where they were stationed, the language of 

 Greece became widely diffused, and a strong desire arose for 

 commercial intercourse, While their principles retained their 

 pristine vigour, the Athenians and the states they represented 

 remained invincible. 



LESSONS IN GERMAN. LX VIII. 



84. PASSIVE VERBS. 



(1.) The passive voice is formed by adding to the auxiliary 

 tutrten, to become, through all its moods and tenses, the perfect 

 participle of the main verb, thus : 



INDIC. ACTIVE. ISDIC. PASSIVK. 



Pres. 3cf> kbe, I praise. 3$ totrte gtlobt, I am praised. 



Imp. 3$ lobte, I praised. 3$ wurtt getebt, I was praised. 



Pei/. 3$ babe gelobt, I have 3$ bin gekbt toerten, I have been 



praised. praised. 



Plup. 3$ b.atte gelobt, I hod 3$ war gefobt toorten, I had been 



praised. praised. 



1. Put. 3$ roetke loben, I shall 3$ rente gelobt ttxrten, I shall be 



praise. praised. 



2. Fut. 3$ roerte gelcbt fuU-cti. I 3* irerte gelobt tccrtcn fein.I shall 



shall have praised. have been praised, etc. 



(2.) It will be noted, that wherever the perfect participle of 

 the main verb (as gelobt above) is joined with the participle of 

 the auxiliary, the latter is written roorten, not geworlen, whereby 

 an offensive repetition (of the syllable ge) is avoided. Sometimes 

 uvrteit is altogether omitted in the past tenses. 



(3.) The Gorman, by confining nxrtcn with the past participle 

 to the expression of passivity, and using ft in, when the partici- 

 ple is to be taken as a mere adjective, has a manifest advantage 

 over the English passive. Thus, if we wish to say in German, he 

 is feared, it will be, tr wirt gefurc$tet ; if the intention, however, be 

 merely to mark the state or charactOT of the person as one who 

 is feared, that is, whose character or conduct inspires fear gene- 

 rally, the German will be, n ifl gefur<$tet, he is (a) feared (man). 

 The form of expression in English, it will be observed, is the 

 same for both ideas : " he is feared." 



(4.) The Germans, however, employ the passive form far less 

 frequently than the English. They prefer other methods ; thus, 

 man fagt. one says, i.e., it is said ; in <$luffel $at fty gefunten, the 

 key has been found. 



85. PARADIGM OP A PASSIVE VERB. 

 (Mtlobt rcmen, to be praised. 



IND. Pres. 3$ roettc gelobt, tu mint aelobt, n wtrt gelo6: ; n?tt ntt- 



