In this movement there were, doubtless, several nations that preceded the Greeks. The civilisation of the East existing anterior to that of Greece, it was the Orientals who made the first step towards opening up that intercourse which afterwards became so intimate between the inhabitants of Hellas and the Arabs of Phœnicia, the Egyptians, the Persians, and other nations of the East. At first, indeed, the camel,[1466] that important instrument of human improvement, revealed to the rude tribes bordering on Arabia, the existence of wants within them, of which they before knew nothing. He came with sweets and luxuries on his back to the hamlet or the encampment, and by the sight of them created desires, to gratify which the aid of industry was to be called in. At a very early age strings of camels, laden with perfumes and spices, and gold, traversed the plains of western Asia, ascended and descended along the Nile, penetrated the northern coasts of Africa, and, by barter and traffic, diffused the productions of the East much further even than their own footsteps reached, as now the manufactures of England find their way into the countries never beheld by an Englishman. ----- Footnote 1466: See a picture of this beast and his baskets, Antich. di Ercol. t. v. p. 5. In the book of Genesis, chap. xxxvii. v. 25, we find a brief picture of the commerce carried on by means of this animal, and an enumeration of some of the principal commodities which he bore from country to country. “And they (the sons of Jacob) sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes, and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.” ----- Presently the blue and beautiful waters of the Mediterranean tempted the adventurous Arabs who had settled in Phœnicia, the country of the palm-tree, to launch their barks on it, and push from isle to isle till they found themselves in Hellas, where the beauty of the women occasionally, perhaps, when they were not to be enticed away, may have tempted an adventurer[1467] to remain as other Arabs have done in every land whither they have wandered.[1468] This, I am persuaded, is all that can be conceded to those who see so many proofs of Oriental colonies in Greece. But though the Orientals did not colonize Greece, they no doubt aided very powerfully in civilizing it. For when the rude natives saw that there were many desirable things to be obtained from the strangers if they could give them any thing valuable in return, it must have set their wits at work to invent new means of obtaining the things they coveted. At the outset it was a rough system of barter. The Phœnicians took the produce of the country in exchange for their merchandise, and secured their own success by awakening an appetite for pleasures which they alone could furnish. ----- Footnote 1467: