The period of more than a century, from 750 to 625 B. C., lying between the age of the Epic and Greek philosophy, may be called an age of political disturbances. The oligarchy had become oppressive to the rich and poor alike. There had grown up in Greece, especially in the colonies, a class of citizens who had become wealthy through commerce. The result of the misgovernment by the oligarchy was that (1) migrations took place, and (2) many revolutions occurred. This was particularly true of the colonies where the proletariat was powerful and the cities were full of adventurers. Plutocracy was at war with aristocracy, and this was the opportunity for bold men. These political troubles took form from 650 B. C. on, and the history of the Greek cities consists of the endeavor to establish popular government. About the time of the first Greek philosophers there arose here and there from the ruins of these civil struggles the so-called tyrants, of whom Thrasybulus at Miletus, Pittacus at Lesbos, Periander at Corinth, and Pisistratus at Athens are examples. The courts of these tyrants became centres of intellectual life. They patronized poets, writers, and artists. The universalism of the Epic had vanished, and in its place came the individualism of the lyric and the satire. In many places the aristocrat went into gloomy retirement, and often cultivated poetry, science, and philosophy. =The Native Tendencies of the Early Greek.= Why were the Greeks the first philosophers of Europe? Their geographical surroundings of sea and land had something to do with it. The passionate party strife between the old, ruling ♦families of nobles and the newly rich trading-class, which took place during the seventh century B. C., no doubt cultivated an early independence of opinion and strength of personality. But, after all, genius was in the blood of the race, and who can say that the true cause was not in the mixing of the blood of the virile Aryan invaders with that of the aboriginal inhabitants? Whatever may be the answer to that question, the Greek race in the seventh century B. C. had an extraordinary curiosity about the world of nature. It loved the concrete fact as no other race of the time loved it, and it loved to give a clear and articulate expression to the concrete fact that it saw. It had an artistic nature that was hostile to all confusion. Let us point out three ways in which the Greek was even in this early time organizing his experiences, reflecting upon the workings of social and nature forces, and thus preparing the way for consideration of the more ultimate questions of philosophy.