erranean Sea, B.C. 449.

[Sidenote: She becomes the centre of policy and philosophy.]

To Athens herself the war had given political supremacy. We need only
look at her condition fifty years after the battle of Plataea. She was
mistress of more than a thousand miles of the coast of Asia Minor; she
held as dependencies more than forty islands; she controlled the straits
between Europe and Asia; her fleets ranged the Mediterranean and the
Black Seas; she had monopolized the trade of all the adjoining
countries; her magazines were full of the most valuable objects of
commerce. From the ashes of the Persian fire she had risen up so
supremely beautiful that her temples, her statues, her works of art, in
their exquisite perfection, have since had no parallel in the world. Her
intellectual supremacy equalled her political. To her, as to a focal
point, the rays of light from every direction converged. The
philosophers of Italy and Asia Minor directed their steps to her as to
the acknowledged centre of mental activity. As to Egypt, an utter ruin
had befallen her since she was desolated by the Persian arms. Yet we
must not therefore infer that though, as conquerors, the Persians had
trodden out the most aged civilization on the globe, as sovereigns they
were haters of knowledge, or merciless as kings. We must not forget that
the Greeks of Asia Minor were satisfied with their rule, or, at all
events, preferred rather to remain their subjects than to contract any
permanent political connexions with the conquering Greeks of Europe.

In this condition of political glory, Athens became not only the
birthplace of new and beautiful productions of art, founded on a more
just appreciation of the true than had yet been attained to in any
previous age of the world (which, it may be added, have never been
surpassed, if, indeed, they have been equalled since), she also became
the receptacle for every philosophical opinion, new and old. Ionian,
Italian, Egyptian, Persian, all were brought to her, and contrasted and
compared together. Indeed, the philosophical celebrity of Greece is
altogether due to Athens. The rest of the country participated but
little in the cultivation of learning. It is a popular error that
Greece, in the aggregate, was a learned country.

[Sidenote: State of philosophy at this juncture.]

We have already seen how the researches of individual inquirers, passing
from point to point, had conducted them, in many instance