HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



cent works of art. Of all these cities Miletus was the most prosperous 

 and the most powerful; her ships were to be seen in every port of the 

 Mediterranean and of the Euxine, and her citizens established them- 

 selves in numerous colonies on every shore. While the merchants of 

 Ionia were making voyages to every part in pursuit of wealth, it was 

 inevitable that the philosophers of Ionia, hearing vaguely of the in- 

 ventions and learning of other lands, should also seek by visits to these 

 to increase their store of knowledge. Thales was fortunate beyond his 

 predecessors for although he is called the originator of philosophy, it 

 is probable that there were in Ionia seekers after knowledge even before 

 him, vixere fortes ante Agamemnona in having the opportunity of visit- 

 ing the wonderful land of Egypt. It was only shortly before the time of 

 Thales, or about B.C. 670, that Egypt was for the first time thrown 

 open to the friendly access of the Greeks ; for the country had for 

 ages been previously closed against all foreigners, the Egyptians main- 

 taining that policy of exclusion and isolation which until lately sepa- 

 rated China and Japan from intercourse with the rest of the world. 



Thales spent a portion of his life in Egypt, where he was initiated 

 by the priests of Memphis and Thebes into the mysteries of their 

 science. It would be useless to speculate upon the antiquity or extent 

 of the scientific knowledge possessed by the inhabitants of the valley of 

 the Nile. Egypt we know was an ancient land at the very dawn of 

 our extant histories. The Great Pyramid may perhaps have been 

 built more than a thousand years before Joseph was brought down to 

 Egypt, and it is certain that at the epoch of its erection the starry 

 heavens over it presented an aspect very different from the present 

 one, for at that epoch the constellation of the Southern Cross shone 

 in the skies of Northern Europe. That a high state of perfection in 

 arts, the result of along settled condition of civilization and prosperity, 

 must have prevailed in Egypt at a very remote period is testified by 

 buildings, statues, and other remains which yet exist, and by the ac- 

 counts which historians have left us of the public works, systems of 

 agriculture, canals, plans of irrigation, etc. These things imply a great 

 knowledge of practical mechanics, of engineering, of the arts of com- 

 putation, and of surveying land. It was doubtless to the practical 

 necessity for methods of measuring land that the science of geometry 

 owed its origin, as indeed its name implies. Be that as it may, it 

 appears certain that at a very remote period the priests of Egypt were 

 in possession of some knowledge of geometry, astronomy, and other 

 sciences. It is also certain that Thale^ and others of the earlier Greek 

 philosophers resorted to Egypt in order to acquire a knowledge of 

 science. 



The journey of Thales to Egypt marks an epoch in the progress of 

 the development of scientific thought. We do not mean by the mere 

 importation of scientific knowledge into Europe, but by showing us one 

 of the great steps in the division of intellectual labour. The priests 



