“Because,” replied the Fox, “these flies that are upon me now are already full, and draw but little blood; but should you remove them, a swarm of fresh and hungry ones will come, who will not leave a drop of blood in my body.”—JAMES. =Progress of Greek Prose.=—An impetus was given to the development of Greek prose by the praiseworthy efforts of Pisistratus (537-527 B.C.), who gathered the first library in Greece, collected and edited the poems of Homer, and imitated his kinsman Solon in laboring to elevate the literary taste of the people. During his administration and that of his sons Hippias and Hipparchus, also patrons of letters, prose literature took deep root throughout the Ionian colonies, where history and philosophy had many representatives. The style of these early writers was for the most part fragmentary, dry, and inelegant. It soon improved, however, grew into favor, and in the hands of the profound thinkers, fluent historians, and persuasive orators of Greece, was wrought into models which are still the admiration of the world. EARLY PROSE WRITERS. PHILOSOPHERS. ANAXIMANDER (born 610 B.C.), first map-drawer, and introducer of the sundial. He represented the earth as cylindrical, and as the centre about which the stars and planets revolved; its inhabitants as the result of fermentation caused by the action of the sun’s rays on its marshes. His “Treatise on Nature” (547 B.C.), the first work on biology and the earliest philosophical essay written in Greek. ANAXIM’ENES (born 556 B.C.) made the earth a leaf-shaped mass floating in the air; the sun and moon flat circular bodies; _air_ the elementary principle from which all things were made and to which they returned: the soul, air. HERACLI’TUS of Ephesus (505 B.C.) rejected the nature-worship of his countrymen, and believed in an all-wise, omnipresent Power. He is recorded to have wept continually over the sins of men; hence called the weeping philosopher. _Fire_ the first principle. “No man,” said he in allusion to the never-ceasing changes in the world, “can wade twice in the same stream.” HISTORIANS. CADMUS of Miletus (540 B.C.): “Primeval History of Miletus and Ionia.” ACUSILA’US the Argive (525 B.C.): “Genealogies,” a prose translation of Hesiod’s “Theogony,” altered in parts to suit the theories of the author. HECATÆUS the Milesian (520-479 B.C.), “the far-travelled man:” “Genealogies,” a history of the mythical heroes of Greece; and a “Description of the Earth,” containing a summary of his own travels and explorations. CHARON of Lampsacus (500-450 B.C.), the first historian to record authentic events: “History of the Persian War,” “Annals of Lampsacus,” “Chronicles of the Spartan Kings.” HELLANI’CUS of Mytilene, a noted compiler. XANTHUS the Lydian: “The Lydiaca,” a history of Lydia in four volumes. SEVEN SAGES AND THEIR MOTTOES. SOLON of Athens: “Know thyself.” CHI’LO of Sparta: “Consider the end.”