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SCIENCES IN CONNEXION WITH THE STATE. 11pears to have been promoted by several very natural causes.The largernumber and the most celebrated of those mythologicalhistorians lived and flourished in the latter half of thesixth century before the Christian era that; is, not long before the commencement of the Persian wars. 1Of these theearliest are said to have been Cadmus of Miletus, and Hecataeusof the same place, Acusilaus of Argos, Pherecydes ofSyros, Charon of Lampsacus, and several others whom Dionysiusof Halicarnassus enumerates. They belong to theage in which the nation was rising in youthful energy;when it was already extended to the west and the east, andits flourishing cities were engaged in various commerce;when it had become acquainted with many nations, andtravelling had begunto be common. From the title of theworks of these narrators of traditions, it is evident that theywere not careful to limit themselves to the accounts, whichthey found in the ancient epic poets but that ; they took awider range, embracing the history of cities and nations,and also the descriptionof the coasts of the countries. Aproof of this is found in the catalogue of the writings ofHellanicus the Lesbian, one of the latest of them. 2These remarks, when considered in connexion, will serveto show us the character of history before Herodotus. Itwas in its origin entirely Grecian and;even when the sphereof observation was extended to foreign countries, kept pacewith the politicaladvancement of the nation. It preservedits poetical character, and therefore did not become-critical ;but it was developed with perfect freedom ;and was neverheld by the priests in bondage to religion.As poetry hadfor a long time been the means of its itpreservation, becamein some measure the play of fancy (although epic poetrywas much more restricted than the subsequent lyric andtragic) but in return, as it was propagated by no hiero;glyphics, it could never, as in Egypt, degenerate into meresymbolical narration. When it came to be transferred frompoetry to prose, it was necessarily connected with improvements in the art of writing ;and the deficiency of our accounts on this subject s is one of the chief reasons why we1Between the 60th and ?0th Olympiad, or 540500 years B. C.2 See Creuzer*s Historic Art among the Greeks in its Origin and Progress.Compare Dahlmann's Historical Inquiries, in the Life of Herodotus, p. 108,esoecially on Hecafseus,* See Wolfii Prolegoni. p. xL etc.p 2