And that what the Egyptians did directly communicate was rather the material for improvement than the improvement itself, this one gift is an individual example and a general type;--the Egyptians imparted to the Greeks the use of the papyrus--the most easy and popular material for writing; we are thus indebted to Egypt for a contrivance that has done much to preserve to us--much, perhaps, to create for us--a Plato and an Aristotle; but for the thoughts of Aristotle and Plato we are indebted to Greece alone:--the material Egyptian--the manufacture Greek.
XI.

The use of the papyrus had undoubtedly much effect upon the formation of prose composition in Greece, but it was by no means an instantaneous one.

At the period on which we now enter (about B.C.
600), the first recorded prose Grecian writer had not composed his works.

The wide interval between prose in its commencement and poetry in its perfection is peculiarly Grecian; many causes conspired to produce it, but the principal one was, that works, if written, being not the less composed to be recited, not read--were composed to interest and delight, rather than formally to instruct.

Poetry was, therefore, so obviously the best means to secure the end of the author, that we cannot wonder to find that channel of appeal universally chosen; the facility with which the language formed itself into verse, and the license that appears to have been granted to the gravest to assume a poetical diction without attempting the poetical spirit, allowed even legislators and moralists to promulgate precepts and sentences in the rhythm of a Homer and a Hesiod.