56 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



"It is great error to judge of ancient navigation by present. 

 To-day sailors go on at night and in cloudy weather, while 

 anciently they came to anchor. The ancients followed 

 every angle and sinuosity of the coast. The author of the 

 Periplous of the Red Sea proves that the Egyptians got to 

 India only by following the coast in little ships," and he 

 closes with Pliny's even more sagacious remark "The 

 desire for gain rendered India less distant than the rest of 

 the world." The appearance of Phoenician ships in the 

 Persian Gulf in 697-695 B. C. gave, however, great im- 

 petus to commerce with the far East, for they w r ere much 

 larger, better built and more sea- worthy than the vessels 

 of the Babylonians and Assyrians. Voyages in the Indian 

 Ocean in search of new markets then became longer, and 

 finally the southern shores of Shantung (East China) were 

 reached in about 675 B. C. 1 



There is no trustworthy evidence, however, that the 

 Phoenicians, despite their skill as iron workers, had any 

 knowledge of the directive property of the magnet. Their 

 most ancient book, written by Sanconiathon, u the phil- 

 osopher of Tyre," deals with the progress of the human 

 mind and the discoveries made by man, and, in accounting 

 for these last, says that "it was the God Otiranos who 

 devised Betulae, contriving stones that moved as having 

 life." On this passage the theory that the betulae must 

 have been the lodestone has frequently been based, and 

 Sir William Betham asserts unequivocally, though none 

 the less inconsequently, that this statement is quite suffi- 

 cient to prove the acquaintance of the Phoenicians with 

 the compass. 2 On the other hand, it has been elaborately 

 demonstrated by one author that the betulae were not ani- 

 mated stones at all, but merely stones figuratively so con- 

 sidered, or, in other words, idols; 3 while other writers 



1 De Lacotiperie : Western Origin of Early Chinese Civilization, Lcn- 

 don, 1894. 



2 Sir W. Betham : Etruria-Celtica, London, 1842, II., 8, et seq. 

 8 Fourmont : Reflexions sur les Anciens Peuples, Paris, 1747. 



