They were not poets, or painters, or sculptors, or great architects, much less philosophers or scientists; but in the practical arts, and even in the practical sciences, they held a high place, in almost all of them equalling, and in some exceeding, all their neighbours.
We should be inclined also to assign to the Phoenicians, as a special characteristic, a peculiar capacity for business.

This may be said, indeed, to be nothing more than acuteness of intellect applied in a particular way.

To ourselves, however, it appears to be, in some sort, a special gift.

As, beyond all question, there are many persons of extremely acute intellect who have not the slightest turn for business, or ability for dealing with it, so we think there are nations, to whom no one would deny high intellectual power, without the capacity in question.

In its most perfect form it has belonged but to a small number of nations--to the Phoenicians, the Venetians, the Genoese, the English, and the Dutch.