THE MEDITERRANEAN. 473 



of Italy and Greece to trade ; they discovered the 

 silver mines of Spain ; they sailed forth through the 

 Straits of Gibraltar, they braved the storms of the 

 Atlantic, opened the tin trade of Cornwall, established 

 the amber diggings of the Baltic. Thus a long thread 

 of commerce was stretched across the Old World from 

 England and Germany to China and Japan. Yet, still 

 thegreat countries inthe central region dwelt in haughty 

 isolation, knowing foreign lands only by their products, 

 until the wide conquests and the superb administrations 

 of the Persians made them members of the same com- 

 munity. China alone remained outside. Egypt, Baby- 

 lonia, and India were united by royal roads with half-way 

 stations in Palestine, and Bokhara, and with sea-ports 

 in Phoenicia, and on the western coast of Asia 

 Minor. That country is a table-land belted on all 

 sides by mountains ; but beneath the wall of hills on 

 the western side is a fruitful strip of coast, the estuary 

 land of four rivers which flow into the Mediterranean 

 parallel to one another. That coast is Ionia ; and 

 opposite to Ionia lies Greece. The table-land was oc- 

 cupied by an Arian or Arya nation, from whom bands 

 of emigrants went forth in two directions. The 

 Dorians crossed the Hellespont, and passing through 

 Thrace, settled in the hill cantons of Northern Greece, 

 and thence spread over the lower parts of the peninsula. 

 The Ionians descended to the fruitful western coast, 

 and thence migrated into Attica which afterwards sent 

 back colonies to its ancient birth-place. These two 

 people spoke the same language, and were of the same 

 descent ; but their characters differed as widely as the 

 cold and barren mountains from the soft and smiling 

 plains. The Dorians were rude in their manners, and 

 laconic in their speech, barbarous in their virtues, 



