[123] “Nothing was known of the balance of trade, and consequently all the violent measures resulting from it were unknown to the Greeks ... as everything was decided by examinations and not by theories, there may have been exceptions, where the state for a time usurped a monopoly. But how far was this from the mercantile and restrictive system of the moderns.”—Heeren Pol. Hist. Ancient Greece, c. x. 163.
[124] The coin is in one of the addenda to Flores;—it is not in the copy at the British Museum. The coin is, however, known in the medal room.
[125] It is figured on a vase in the Museo Borbonico.
CHAPTER XII.
THE STONE OF HERCULES.
“Behold thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee.”
“The wise men that were in thee, O Tyrus, were they pilots?”
The magnetic needle has become so essential in the economy of the world, that we can hardly imagine the consequences which would ensue, were it suddenly to lose its power. It is not, however, difficult to picture the sudden and gigantic growth of any one commercial state, which, in such a contingency, should discover the means of restoring its efficacy, and preserve the secret.
To what pitch of greatness must not any state have ascended, which, from the beginning, had been favoured and distinguished by such a possession? It would take tithes from the harvests of every land; the produce of every zone would furnish its marts, the toil of every race fill its coffers; and if by weakness, wisdom, or integrity it did abstain from plotting and scheming, and contented itself with driving its trade, and meriting by using its fortune, the other states of the world, instead of hating it, and combining to destroy it, would favour and cherish it as a common benefactor.
There is an ancient people whose history I have in the above supposition described, whose growth and duration are in no ways to be accounted for, as in the case of any other state; who had neither number nor territory, yet who ascended to the loftiest pinnacle of dominion, competed with Egypt in antiquity, and endured, more than twice told, the career of Rome.
We are constrained to give credence to the facts; but the cause escapes us. To admit is one thing—to comprehend another. To comprehend the growth of Phœnicia, we must embody at least every known element of prosperity, and, amongst these, at least so much of the aids of navigation as the polarity of the needle affords.