the rich fabrics which only Asia furnished, and the cities to which
these were brought, like Athens and Corinth, rapidly grew rich, like
Venice and Genoa in the Middle Ages.

(M404) Wealth of course introduced art. The origin of art may have been in
religious ideas--in temples and the statues of the gods--in tombs and
monuments of great men. But wealth immeasurably increased the facilities
both for architecture and sculpture. Artists in old times, as in these,
sought a pecuniary reward--patrons who could afford to buy their
productions, and stimulate their genius. Art was cultivated more rapidly
in the Asiatic colonies than in the mother country, both on account of
their wealth, and the objects of interest around them. The Ionian cities,
especially, were distinguished for luxury and refinement. Corinth took the
lead in the early patronage of art, as the most wealthy and luxurious of
the Grecian cities.

(M405) The first great impulse was given to architecture. The Pelasgi had
erected Cyclopean structures fifteen hundred years before Christ. The
Dorians built temples on the severest principles of beauty, and the Doric
column arose, massive and elegant. Long before the Persian wars the
temples were numerous and grand, yet simple and harmonious. The temple of
Here, at Samos, was begun in the eighth century, B.C., and built in the
Doric style, and, soon after, beautiful structures ornamented Athens.

(M406) Sculpture rapidly followed architecture, and passed from the
stiffness of ancient times to that beauty which afterward distinguished
Phidias and Polynotus. Schools of art, in the sixth century, flourished in
all the Grecian cities. We can not enter upon the details, from the use of
wood to brass and marble. The temples were filled with groups from
celebrated masters, and their deep recesses were peopled with colossal
forms. Gold, silver, and ivory were used as well as marble and brass. The
statues of heroes adorned every public place. Art, before the Persian
wars, did not indeed reach the refinement which it subsequently boasted,
but a great progress was made in it, in all its forms. Engraving was also
known, and imperfect pictures were painted. But this art, and indeed any
of the arts, did not culminate until after the Persian wars.

(M407) Literature made equal if not greater progress in the early ages of
Grecian history. Hesiod lived B.C. 735; and lyric poetry flourished in the
sixth and seventh centuries before Chr