OR, PLAIN TEACHING. 



161 



•Vealth of the East flowed into its harbour ; and 

 ihat, beside its host of mercantile ships, it main- 

 tained the largest fleet in Greece. Its capital 

 city of iEgina was adorned with stately build- 

 ings, while its magnificent temple to Jupiter 

 even now, in its ruins, is regarded as one of the 

 noblest works of Grecian art with which we are 

 acquainted. Some idea of the great commercial 

 importance of the people of this island may be 

 gathered from what Herodotus tells of its his- 

 tory, and the amazement with which Xerxes, 

 when, with his army of 2,000,000 Persians, he 

 stood on the Dardanelles, giving orders for the 

 bridge of boats that was to transport his mighty 

 host into Greece, surveyed the vast fleet of corn- 

 ships, bearing the teeming harvests of the Black 

 Sea coasts, Moldavia, and Thrace, as they passed 

 by him, slowly sailing down the straits bound 

 for yEgina, with the wealth of kingdoms, and 

 quite indifferent to the clash of arms, proceeding 

 in unruffled peace with their commercial deal- 

 ings. 



The island, after three and 

 twenty centuries, is now remark- 

 able only as affording some of 

 the finest classic ruins, 14, of the 

 ancient world. 



We conclude these brief out- 

 lines of geographical information, 

 reminding the reader that we 

 have omitted mention of the 

 European countries, because their 

 advanced civilization, and the 

 high development of their insti- 

 tutions., demand a more detailed 



description than the plan of these 

 unpretending pages will admit. 



We have been content to view 

 some of those wilder " aspects of 

 nature," which the great Hum- 

 boldt delighted to contemplate. 

 That great man says, in his 

 " Cosmos," that he was at first 

 led to take the deep interest 

 which he afterwards manifested 

 in the study of Nature, by read- 

 ing an illustrated book descrip- 

 tive of the islands of the Pacific, 

 by some pictures which he had 

 seen, representing the banks of 

 the Ganges, and by a colossal 

 dragon-tree in an old tower of 

 the Botanic Garden of Berlin. 



Our pictures have brought to 

 view many of those scenes and 

 phenomena which charmed the 

 eye of the great philosopher. 

 May we not hope that, as a picture- 

 book first kindled in Humboldt's 

 breast a desire to know more of 

 the beauties and wonders of 

 Creation, our geographical les- 

 sons have awakened a similar 

 longing in those by whom these 

 pages have been read ? 



486 



