THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. 261 



can reach, the Mediterranean has been the region upon, or 

 around which, races and nations have struggled for posses- 

 sion and power. Egypt stands first in the long series of 

 sovereignties which border upon it ; reaching remotely into 

 the depths of time in its pictured, written, and monumental 

 history ; yet owing its very existence, as well as its wealth 

 and power, to the great Eiver which seeks the sea through 

 this extraordinary valley. The Assyrian, Babylonian, and 

 Persian Empires, though less closely contiguous to the 

 Mediterranean in the centre of their power, yet are deeply 

 concerned in the successive events of war and conquest of 

 which its eastern shores were anciently the scene. The his- 

 tory of the Jewish nation, closely connected with that of the 

 Empires just named, yet having a special and miraculous 

 individuality of its own, belongs by close proximity to this 

 Sea ; with which it is associated not only by the record of 

 events, but also by those many sublime passages of sacred 

 poetry, of which the ' wonders of the deep ' are the worthy 

 and magnificent theme. Still more closely appertaining to 

 the Mediterranean is that strange and anomalous common- 

 wealth of the Phoenician Cities ; anticipating in some 

 unexplained way the progress of later times, and carrying its 

 commerce by sea or land to the extremities of the then 

 known world. The people and commonwealths of Greece 

 next come into the picture; a wonderful race, deriving 

 some parts of their primitive culture from Egypt and 

 Phoenicia ; but so enlarging and refining these elements, as 

 to have bequeathed an immortal legacy of art, poetry, and 

 philosophy to every succeeding age. The Mediterranean, 

 girding round and intersecting every part of their territory, 

 is the constant scene of Grecian history and poetry. No one 

 familiar with Herodotus and Thucydides can forget how 

 large a portion of their narrative is attached to the coasts 

 of this sea ; which attest even now in their several localities 



