1800.] The Britiſp Merchant. I55

a thouſand diverſities of genius, of exertion, of chara&er, meuf, uinavoidably, ariſe. Tt was thus, that all the elegant arts were firſt produced in Greece, ot at leaſt among people, of the Grecian name, chiefly—by giving lightneſs and elegance to the clumſy though ſumptuous artificial productions,—or by improving to a complexity not deſtitute of unity, and to a refinement in which ſimplicity had put off grofineſs, rude inventions ſuch as thoſe of. the American or Siberian ſavages, which for laborious, yet ſimple elegance, have been ſo much admired by the nations of Europe in modern times. In the earlier ages, theſe Greeks had been only mariners, knowing no delights equal to thoſe of 2 ſea-faring life. A period ſucceeded, during which, che life of a huſbandman was, alone, fondly preferred. In the ſubſe- quent period, freemen were artiſts(rarely artiſans) huſbandmen, merchants, mariners, and knew to reliſh all theſe diferent ways of life. This was the fr truely flouriſhing age of Grecian cemmerce,‘The fleets which the Greeks fitted out, to reſiſt Perſian invaſion, were fuch as only maritime trade and induſtry highty flouriſhing, could enable them permanently to maintain. Tts commerce and its foreign poſſeſſions occupied with commer- cial views, were the fundamental ſupports of the grandeur of Athens. The ſeat of every celebrated oracle was, neceſlarily, a ſcene for the conſtant refort of trade: every political aſſem- bly of the people of any fate, was an occaſion favourable for the buſineſs of a market: the meetings of the Amphiéyons, the concourſes to the I&hmian and the Olympic games, were, all eminently convenient for internal and for toreign com= merce;¡—they were the fairs oſ Ancient Greece. Mines of iron, lead, and filyer, were wrought by the Greeks, chiefly in Thrace. Their marble was, chiefly, from iſles in the Ægean Archipelago. At many of the principal cities were ingenious manufacturers of the uſeful arts. Their ſculpture, their molten and caſt works, nay their muſic, poetry, and eloquence, became, in no inconſiderable degree, the ſubjects of a lucrative trade. Their zavigation was, indeed, only a coaſting navigation: but, modern ſeamen confeſs, that this fort of ſailing is greatly more dangérous and difficult, than that which launches out into the open feas: and it is, therefore, highly probable, that the ſailors of Ancient Greece were, at leaſt, not leſs dexterous and ex- pert, than thoſe of modern England, in all the more dificult toils of a ſeafaring life. In the progreſs of their arts and com- merce, the Greeks ſo far outſtripped the perfe&ion of the arts of Aſia,—that they ſoon found, in the wide dominions of the Perſian Empire,—a vaſt market for many of their moſt elegant manufaQures. The eminently flouriſhing condition of their

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