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SCIENCES IN CONNEXION WITH THE STATE.things, it is true, served to facilitate his labour. Many atof citiestempts had been made to explain the earliest historyand nations ; travelling had been rendered easy by the extensive commerce of the Grecian cities, and several of his predecessors are known to have visited many countries x;themythological writers (Xoryocy/m^oOtad already formed the language for prosaic narration; and the nation for which he wrotewas already awake to the beauties of historic composition.Still he was the first who undertook to treat of a purely historical subject; and thus to take the decisive step, which gaveto historyits rank as an independent science* Yet he did notlimit himself to his chief subject, but gaveit such an extent,that his work, notwithstanding its epic unity, became in a2certain sense a universal history. Continuing the threadof his story from the times when controversies first arose between the Hellenes and the barbarians,till those when atPlatsege the war was terminated so gloriouslyfor the Greeks,Hellas, attacked but liberated, became the great subject ofhis narration; opportunities were constantly presenting themselves, or were introduced, of interweaving the descriptionand historyof the countries and nations, which required tobe mentioned, without ever losing sight of his chief object,to which he returns from every episode. He had himselfvisited the greater part of these countries and nations ;hadseen them with his own eyes; had collected informationfrom the most credible sources. But when he enters uponthe antiquities of the nations, especiallyof his own, he makesuse of the means afforded him by his age and here hisjwork borders on those of the earlier historians (the Xoyory/>ft0o