GROWTH IN RELIGION 271 



trade. It was they, as we shall see in the next 

 chapter, who carried from Egypt to Greece many of 

 the things which the Egyptians had discovered and 

 used, but which the Greeks made more useful and 

 more beautiful. 



The Egyptians were the most civilized nation at 

 that time, but the Greeks possessed the greater souls 

 and the keener minds. Because of their love of 

 beauty and their desire to do and to make every- 

 thing in the best way, the Greeks became the teach- 

 ers of the other nations in Europe. To them we 

 ourselves owe much of our architecture, our art and 

 our literature. But it was the Phoenician traders 

 who first taught the Greeks some of the very things 

 that the Greeks themselves improved upon and after- 

 ward taught the world. 



Now these Phoenicians, although they were so- 

 brave and courageous in spirit, and so useful in start- 

 ing Europe toward a higher civilization than any 

 other countries of the Old World have attained, were 

 not themselves truly civilized. They did not grow 

 as God meant that mankind should grow, and this 

 was largely because they had the wrong thought of 

 God. They believed that He desired human sacri- 

 fices. In their mistaken worship they did such cruel 

 and wicked things that they became cruel and 

 wicked in their own Uves. All the other nations 

 came to hate them for these traits, and finally they 

 were conquered, their rich and powerful city was 

 destroyed and they were a nation of traders no 

 longer. 



One nation there was at that time whose people 



