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ANCIENT GREECE.[CHAP. xiv.And here again we perceive the just viewscentral point.of the Greeks, Is not each nation the nearest object toitself? And next to the present moment, what can interestit more than its own previous condition ?This was early and very generally felt ;and if historicalaccounts have been preserved but scantily or not at all, thefault is to be attributed, not to the want of exertions to insure that end, but to the imperfection of the means whichthe nations could control ;that is, not merely to the wantof an alphabet, but of the materials which are used in writing. Persepolis, Thebes, Mexico, do not all these furnishdistinct proofs of the truth of our remark ?But not less depended on the circumstance, whether anypersons, a peculiar class or caste in the nation, were commissioned to record the events as they passed. "Where apriesthood existed, the preparing of the calendar, howeverimperfect or perfect it might be, was their business jand tothis it was easy to add the writing of annals.The Greeks had no such separate order of priests;and hence we hear nothing of any annals which they possessed. 1 Yet religion still did something for history. Amultitude of relations, preserving the memory of early events,were associated with the consecrated offerings in the temples.How often are these referred to by Herodotus ! andthe historical remarks of Pausanias are almost always madein connexion with them. But they could neither fix a succession of time, nor do more than confirm single facts.The history, therefore, of the Greeks emanated from anentirely different source, from tradition ;and since this supplied poetry with its subjects, the poets remained for centuries the sole preservers of traditional accounts. But it doesnot follow, that Grecian history was an invention, becauseit was originally poetical Indeed, it never entirely lost thatcharacter. The subjects of history, as presented by traditionwere only interwoven with fictions. But it is obvious of itself,that the character of the Grecian traditions must havehad a great or even a decisive influence on the character oftheir history.