a long misunderstood description, not merely of the thick, gray mist which makes earth, the water, and the air indistinguishable, but of the northern lights. He then sailed to the mouths of the Rhine, penetrated to the Elbe, to the land of the Teutons, and to the islands which at low tide were dry land, to the island of Abalos (Heligoland ?), whither in spring the waves bring the amber; finally, he reached the coast of Jutland.

Pytheas, the discoverer of the Germans, undertook his bold voyage in the interests of science, and offered to science enormous tracts of new territory, which, from foolish but explicable doubts, it long wished to relegate to the domain of fable. Some practical extension of the sphere of Massilian commerce, in fact the founding of a settlement at the mouth of the Loire, may well have been connected with this important expedition. An excessive estimate of the distance over which he sailed, and the consequent assumption of the immense expanse of the coast of Britain, certainly caused errors in the chart of Pytheas; but our age is competent fully to grasp the high importance of Pytheas as one of the earliest and most successful explorers of all times.

Greek daring and Greek intellect thus surveyed the then known world from the Shetland Islands to modern Turkestan, from the west coast of Libya to the Ganges. The survey of Britain and Persia, the aurora borealis, the tides in the Atlantic, no less than the growth of banyans and mangroves, amber on the shores of Germany, gold and silver mines in India, and scientific inquiry into the outer ocean and the limits of the land, were objects of Greek investigation as much as the laws of social development and the laws of thought itself. Thus the philosophy of Aristotle (384-322) seems to us like the pæan of this world-embracing thought, teaching that thought itself is the immaterial divinity, the cause of all movement, the absolute self-consciousness.

Insight into the laws of human thought is the most certain starting point of all knowledge. We follow in thought the universal cause into its particular effects, just as we see the white light break up in the prism into its bright component colours. That thing which, through every period of change, preserves its comprehensible existence is the object of true knowledge. All development consists in the relation of potentiality to realisation, of matter to form. If the matter develops to the form which is latent in it by design, then, according to the laws of predisposition and necessity, it develops progressively, without beginning or end, in unceasing movement, from the formless, that is, the pure matter, through an immense series of gradations, upwards to the immaterial form, to the divinity. And in this scale of gradations, where even the changes of the inorganic imply a development of latent potentialities, the evolutionary process passes through the lower forms of life, possessing but a vegetative soul, to man, whose soul is reason. Happiness is the aim of human life, and to obtain it the ethical virtues, which are rooted in the will, come into play together with knowledge. But man can never pursue his goal in solitude; he requires fellow-men and society; he is a wov πоλTIKÓν, a social being. One of the great intellectual discoveries of the age of Alexander shows itself in the doctrine that man cannot fully realise his latent potentialities except in the State; this doctrine supplies an irresistible protest against those cowardly and selfish anarchist delusions of the Cynics and Megarians, who held that the only happiness possible to the individual by himself consisted in the reversion to impossible coni ions of barbarism and in the enjoyment

of the moment. All intelligent persons grasped clearly the importance of the fact now established that only a combined social effort and the strength of the community had created for Hellenism that predominant place which it held in the world.

Thus Aristotle, whose influence has been felt for two thousand years, is the best personification of that age which created a living and active philosophy from the results of its achievements, and no longer clung to political phrases, but from an investigation of the abundant historical material brought into clear relief the outlines of the State and its primary object, the education of the citizens.

(c) The Power and Position of Hellenism after Alexander the Great. The focus of political activity shifted towards the East, and the direction of world commerce changed; the centres of trade were now the new Greek cities, in comparison with which the ancient capitals seemed insignificant settlements. Alexander valued the Semite as a necessary complement to the Persian; he was also not without reverence for old traditions and for scientific eminence. He therefore promoted the prosperity of Babylon; but Seleucia on the Tigris, not Babylon, became the metropolis of the fertile plain of Mesopotamia.

The combined commerce of India, Ethiopia, Arabia, and Egypt itself converged on Alexandria, that city of world trade and cosmopolitan civilization. It was there, close to that emblem of world trade, the marble lighthouse, the Pharos, which towered high above the palm-trees, and near the museum and the library, the homes of civilization, that the mortal remains of Alexander's fiery spirit found their last resting-place. How small seemed the "great" cities of the mother country compared with this city of Alexander, covering some twenty-two hundred acres (three and a half square miles) with its half million of inhabitants. Carpet factories, glass-works, the production of papyrus and incense, gave the commercial city the stamp of a manufacturing town. Alexandria, as the centre of a new movement, became also the headquarters of the new industry of cameo-cutting. That marvellous Farnesettazza, which has rightly been termed the foremost product of Alexandrine art, came from its workshops.

Alexandria then was the starting point of that policy, justly to be compared with the attitude of the English in India, which ruled the Nile country in civilization, politics, and nationality. It forced upon the native population the language of their rulers, burdened the natives alone with a poll-tax, but in compensation it allowed an infinity of religious ideas to ascend from the lower strata of society to the ruling class. Districts, towns, and villages were given new Greek names, and at the period when the Greek influence was at its height many of the old population Grecised their names or gave them a Greek look (efonch-er lives='Eπávʊxos, and similarly Thaubastis Oavμaσтn); and not only were the royal edicts published in the Greek language (occasionally with an Egyptian translation), but also the private contracts of ordinary business (leases, labour contracts, conveyances) are in Greek. Ptolemy Philadelphus succeeded in assigning the proceeds of a very ancient tax (the apomoira, or one-sixth of the produce of vineyards, orchards, and kitchen gardens) to the cult of his sister Arsinoë, that is, to the Ptolemaic government (264-263). The assignment of other imposts in compensation did not check a considerable shrinkage in the revenue of the native temples. The prevalence of Greek notions in the worship of Serapis is incontestable (Vol. III, p. 692).

Counter influences, generated in the lower levels of society, offered a stout resistance to the potent ideas of the Hellene. The old native divinities brought not merely Alexander, but also the Ptolemies, so strongly under their spell that they built numerous temples in their honour. The old administrative divisions were left, with the natural exception that the Ptolemies, following Alexander's uniform policy in Persia, placed military commanders by the side of the civil officials. The wonderfully close-meshed net of taxation, which the Pharaoh dynasty had drawn round its subjects, was preserved and developed as a welcome institution; so also the system of monopolies, the exploitation of the royal demesnes, and the official hierarchy of the court. The old magic formulae, the influence of the Magi,1 the mythology, and the religious ideas of Egypt poured in mighty streams into the Hellenic world. And even if these latter suffered a transformation at the hands of the Stoics and other Greek schools, yet their essential features persisted, and showed a marvellous power of revival. Even in art the old Egyptian style carried the day. We find a princess of the Ptolemaic house depicted on a cameo as an Egyptian; and if artistic representations may be trusted, the princes themselves adopted native dress.

The ancient cities of Syria were so far Grecised that the new capital Antioch on the Orontes, with its suburb Daphne, henceforward the emporium for the Euphrates trade, was surrounded by a chain of Greek settlements. Military colonies, inhabited by veterans who had earned their discharge, as well as by natives, were founded on the model of the city-state, both in the old country and in Asia Minor. City life, with a government by a mass assembly and an organisation of the citizens in tribes, flourished in these colonies. Supported by the national government, occupying the position of the dominant class, the Greeks acquired enormous influence upon social life. How completely the Greek Polis had conquered the Semitic East is proved by the forms of worship and of law. Ascalon could produce a Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo, in addition to Astarte and the fish-goddess (Atargatis-Derketo). The coins of Damascus show, it is true, a Dionysus, who exhibits some assimilation to the Arabian god, but they bear also the heads of Artemis, Athene, and Nike. The so-called Syrian Code was compiled in these regions on the basis of Greek legal notions. Even in the era of the Maccabees a gymnasium in Jerusalem shocked the orthodox Jews; and the Feast of Tabernacles was, by the introduction of thyrsus wands, made to resemble the Dionysia, which, however, a Seleucid could not introduce.

Terms belonging to constitutional forms (self-government), to military matters (army, war, pay), and legislation (Sanhedrin, the titles of prosecutor, defendant, presiding judge) forced their way into Palestine. The phraseology of commerce showed Greek influence; so did the Greek legend borne by Jewish coins after the time of the Hasmoneans. Hemp now was imported hither from Greece; Greek household furniture, Greek clothing, and Greek family names preponderate.

The Jews of the Dispersion were Hellenised in various ways. The translation of the Scriptures, the Septuagint version, was due to the necessity of keeping up the knowledge of the Bible among those who had gradually lost their acquaintance with the sacred language. Thus a new channel was opened for the diffusion of Greek influence; although diffusion was accompanied by a process of corruption,

So late as the Byzantine era we may point to the tomb of the Magian priestess Mithritis, found in 1902 by Alexander Gayet.

Greeks

and the Greek language took a tinge of Hebraic idiom among the Jews of Alexandria.

Even the remote countries of the East now drew nearer to Hellenism. The Greeks of Asia Minor had of course belonged to the same empire as a part of the Indian nation, so that commerce was early able to bring into the Punjab the products of Greek art; and philosophical ideas, such as the Indian doctrine of the transmigration of souls, found their way to Greek territory. It is certain that the Indians, at the time of the grammarian Pânini (Vol. II, p. 415), had become familiar with the Greek alphabet, and had struck coins after the Athenian pattern. It was not until Alexander's expedition that the country was conquered by science (p. 8), and the Indian trade, which was now so important to Alexandria, became a part of Greek commerce. The Indian custom of ornamenting golden vessels with precious stones was adopted in the sphere of Greek culture; thus Stratonice of Syria sent golden cups, inlaid with ivory, as an offering to Delos, and Indian jacinth became a favourite material with lapidaries. After the conquests of science the spirit of romance asserted its claim; the imaginative writers of Alexander's age busied themselves with India. At a much earlier date the Greeks had welcomed the fantasies of Indian folk-lore, such as the gold-mining ants as large as jackals and clad in skins, which some wish to explain as a Tibetan fur-clad tribe (cf. Vol. II, p. 146). Even if the myth of the Cyclops, who occur substantially in the Mahâbhârata as Lalataxa, arose independently among the Greeks and the Indians, those tribes which always carry their homes with them, since they only require to wrap themselves up in their enormous ears, are distinctly the creation of an Indian story-teller (cf. ibid. p. 147). They also appear in the Mahâbhârata as Tscharnaprawarana. In the age subsequent to Alexander a flourishing commerce was maintained with India, and Megasthenes (ibid. p. 406) in astonishment tells of the marvellous country, its splendid mountain forests, its smiling well-watered plains, and the strong, proud race of men which breathes the pure air. What a fluttering, crawling, and leaping there is under the mighty trees, whose topmost foliage rustles in the wind! Tigers twice the size of lions, and coal-black apes, whose faces are white and bearded, roam through the Indian forest in the daytime. Gigantic serpents with bat-like wings whiz through the air at night; innumerable kinds of birds screech, and coo, and sing in a bewildering babel.

Amongst the men, however, the most remarkable were the Philosophers, who meditated over the problems of the universe in solitude for thirty-seven years and then never discussed them with women. For, as Megasthenes naïvely thought, if women were unworthy of the high teaching, a grievous sin would have been committed in wasting it on them; but if they were worthy of the teaching, they would certainly be diverted from their own duties, or, to express the idea in modern phraseology, they would be filled with ideas of emancipation. The philosophy itself was gladly recognised as akin to the wisdom of the Greeks. Megasthenes, perhaps, when he makes this statement, has in mind the doctrine of transmigration. So, too, the Greeks, when they saw the procession in honour of Siva (cf. Vol. II, p. 410) winding through the vine-clad valleys, with the clash of cymbals and kettledrums, may have thought themselves transported to their own homes during the noisy passing of a Dionysiac rout. With the Indian precious stones came their names (opal, beryl, etc.) into the West. Indian fables influenced the Greek

travellers' tales, the true precursors of Defoe's immortal work. Thus the romance of Iambulus shows an unmistakable likeness to the adventures of Sinbad, which are the products of Indian fancy, and were later incorporated by the Arabians in the collection of "The Arabian Nights."

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But an influence spread also from the West to the East. A typical instance of this is shown by the fact that Indian expressions connected with warfare (σúpıy§, a subterraneous passage surunyâ, and xáλivos, a horse-bit khalîna, can show a Greek origin; and that μéλav, ink= melâ, and xáλaμos, penkalama) found their way into Sanscrit from the Greek. An echo of the great struggles between Greeks and Indians is heard even in the commentaries on the grammarian Pânini, and intellectual links of connection are forged in abundance. Alexander had brought the tragedies of Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides to India with him, and his gigantic train included numerous actors. We must date back to that period the similarities which the Mritshtshhakatikâ (Vol. II, p. 418) present to the Attic comedy, the imitation of the Greek stage, which calls the curtain in Indian yawanika, or "the Greek," the transference of Homeric legends into the Indian epics, the beast fables on Indian soil, until later even the Greek romances of Achilles Tatius served to adorn the romance "Kâdamharî" of Bâna (600-630 A. D.) and his son. The plastic arts were enriched. Doric (Kashmir), Ionic (Taxila), and Corinthian pillars (Gandhâra) arose in that fairyland, which, under King Asoka (Vol. II, pp. 387, 394), after the Persian model, had passed from the stage of wooden buildings to stone buildings; the symbol of the god of love, the dolphin, may have been transported from Greece to India by the sculptor's art. Coins were struck on the Greek model. Finally, the Greek dialogue served as a framework for the discussions of Greeks and Indians on philosophic subjects; thus the Melinda panha of a somewhat later date- presents one such dialogue between King Menander1 and the Buddhist priest Nâya Sena.

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The relations of Asoka with the West in the field of religion and politics are somewhat audaciously stated in his thirteenth inscription, and the assertion that he, the "pious" king, had succeeded in winning over even the Greek princes Amtiyoga (Antiochus), Tulumaya (Ptolemaus), Amtekina (Antigonus), Maka (Mayas), Alikasadala (Alexander of Epirus) cannot be seriously entertained. The Indo-Bactrian empire and the petty kingdoms parcelled out of it were long a home of the Greek spirit. Great vitality must have been latent in these kingdoms of the Greek conquistadores, since they did not shrink from the danger of mutual hostility. The struggle, which was carried on from these parts, seemed to the adjoining peoples more colossal than the conquests of Alexander the Great. Its importance for the establishment of relations between the Greek-speaking world, India and East Asia, has not yet been sufficiently appreciated. King Demetrius (180-165) and the town of Demetrias (Dâttamittîyaka-yonaka), which he built, appear in the stirring verses of the Mahabharata. Tibetan hordes (cf. Vol. IV, p. 160) drove him out of Bactria and forced him completely into the Punjab. The huge gold coins of his successor Eucratides, with the bust of the king and a horseman (Dioscuros), are described by Chinese records of the first century B. C. Indian culture and philosophy must have gained a footing in this kingdom by degrees. King Menander (c. 125-95 B. C.) was already a Buddhist; but, even when fading away,

1 Sanskrit, Milindra, Pâli, Milinda; cf. below, and Vol. IV, p. 160.