measure and cadence of the verse, conveying impressions of order
and tranquillity, had so great an influence on the minds of the
listeners that they were insensibly softened and civilized,
insomuch that they renounced their private feuds and animosities,
and were reunited in a common admiration of virtue. So that it may
truly be said that Thales prepared the way for the discipline
introduced by Lycurgus.

From Crete he sailed to Asia, with design, as is said, to examine
the difference betwixt the manners and rules of life of the
Cretans, which were very sober and temperate, and those of the
Ionians, a people of sumptuous and delicate habits, and so to form
a judgment; just as physicians do by comparing healthy and
diseased bodies. Here he had the first sight of Homer's works, in
the hands, we may suppose, of the posterity of Creophylus; and,
having observed that the few loose expressions and actions of ill
example which are to be found in his poems were much outweighed by
serious lessons of state and rules of morality, he set himself
eagerly to transcribe and digest them into order, as thinking they
would be of good use in his own country. They had, indeed, already
obtained some slight repute amongst the Greeks, and scattered
portions, as chance conveyed them, were in the hands of
individuals; but Lycurgus first made them really known.

The Egyptians say that he took a voyage into Egypt, and that,
being much taken with their way of separating the soldiery from
the rest of the nation, he transferred it from them to Sparta; a
removal from contact with those employed in low and mechanical
occupations giving high refinement and beauty to the state. Some
Greek writers also record this. But as for his voyages into Spain,