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 FORMATION OF A3T HISTORICAL SENSE. 365 character without the old epical genius ; both the inspiration cf the composer and the sympathies of the audience had become more deeply enlisted in the world before them, and disposed to fasten on incidents of their own actual experience. From Solon and Theognis we pass to the abandonment of all metrical restric tions and to the introduction of prose writing, a fact, the im- portance of which it is needless to dwell upon, marking as well the increased familiarity with written records, as the commence- ment of a separate branch of literature for the intellect, apart from the imagination and emotions wherein the old legends had their exclusive root. Egypt was first unreservedly opened to the Greeks during the reign of Psammetichus, about B. c. 660 ; gradually it became much frequented by them for military or commercial purposes, or for simple curiosity, and enlarged the range of their thoughts and observations, while it also imparted to them that vein of mysticism, which overgrew the primitive simplicity of the Ho- meric religion, and of which I have spoken in a former chapter They found in it a long-established civilization, colossal wonders of architecture, and a certain knowledge of astronomy and geo- metry, elementary indeed, but in advance of their own. Moreover it was a portion of their present world, and it contributed to form in them an interest for noting and describing the actual realities before them. A sensible progress is made in the Greek mind during the two centuries from B. c. 700 to B. c. 500, in the re- cord and arrangement of historical facts : an historical sense arises in the superior intellects, and some idea of evidence as a discrim- inating test between fact and fiction. And this progressive ten- dency was further stimulated by increased communication and by more settled and peaceful social relations between the various members of the Hellenic world, to which may be added material improvements, purchased at the expense of a period of turbu- lence and revolution, in the internal administration of each sepa- rate state. The Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games became frequented by visitors from the most distant parts of Greece : the great periodical festival in the island of Delos brought together the citizens of every Ionic community, with their wives and children, and an ample display of wealth and ornaments.' 1 Homer, Hymn, ad Apollin. 155 ; Thucydid. iii. 104.