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.  It implies, not so much high intellectual power, as a combination of valuable, yet not very admirable, qualities of a lower order.  Industry, perseverance, shrewdness, quickness of perception, power of forecasting the future, power of organisation, boldness, promptness, are among the qualities needed, and there may be others discoverable by the skilful analyst.  All these met in the Phoenicians, and met in the proportions that were needed for the combination to take full effect.

Whether unscrupulousness and want of good faith are rightly assigned to the Phoenicians as characteristic traits, is, at the least, open to doubt.  The Latin writers, with whom the reproach contained in the expression “Punica fides” originated, are scarcely to be accepted as unprejudiced witnesses, since it is in most instances a necessity that they should either impute “bad faith” to the opposite side, or admit that there was “bad faith” on their own.  The aspersions of an enemy are entitled to little weight.  The cry of “perfide Albion” is often heard in the land of one of our near neighbours; but few Englishmen will admit the justice of it.  It may be urged in favour of the Phoenicians that long-continued commercial success is impossible without fair-dealing and honesty; that where there is commercial fair-dealing and honesty, those qualities become part and parcel of the national character, and determine national policy; and, further, that in almost every one of the instances of bad faith alleged, there is at the least a doubt, of which the accused party ought to have the benefit.  At any rate, let it be remembered that the charges made affect the Liby-Phoenicians alone, and not the Phoenicians of Asia, with whom we are here primarily concerned, and that we cannot safely, or equitably, transfer to a mother-country faults which are only even alleged against one of her colonies.

Physically, the Phoenicians appear to have resembled the Assyrians and the Jews.  They had large frames strongly made, well-developed muscles, curled beards, and abundant hair.  In their features they may have borne a resemblance, but probably not a very strong resemblance, to the Cypriots,[336] who were a mixed people recruited from various quarters.[337] In complexion they belonged to the white race, but were rather sallow than fair.  Their hair was generally dark, though it may have been sometimes red.  Some have regarded the name “Phoenician” as indicating that they were of a red or red-brown colour;[338] but it is better to regard the appellation as having passed from the country to its people, and as applied to the country by the Greeks on account of the palm-trees which grew along its shores.