Such a country produces wiry
mountaineers, active and sober.
=The Sea.=--Greece is a land of shores: smaller than Portugal, it has
as great a coast-line as Spain. The sea penetrates it to a great
number of gulfs, coves, and indentations; it is ordinarily surrounded
with projecting rocks, or with approaching islands that form a natural
port. This sea is like a lake; it has not, like the ocean, a pale and
sombre color; usually it is calm, lustrous, and, as Homer says, "of
the color of violets."
No sea lends itself better to navigation with small ships. Every
morning the north wind rises to conduct the barques of Athens to Asia;
in the evening the south wind brings them back to port. From Greece to
Asia Minor the islands are placed like stepping-stones; on a clear day
the mariner always has land in view. Such a sea beckons people to
cross it.
And so the Greeks have been sailors, traders, travellers, pirates, and
adventurers; like the Phoenicians, they have spread over all the
ancient world, carrying with them the merchandise and the inventions
of Egypt, of Chaldea, and of Asia.
=The Climate.
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