66 THE CLIMATE. 



canton became warmly attached to their fatherland. 

 Nature had given them ramparts which they knew 

 how to use. They defended with obstinacy the river 

 and the pass ; if those were forced, the citadel be- 

 came a place of refuge and resistance ; and if the 

 worst came to the worst, they could escape to inac- 

 cessible mountain caves. 



Each of these States possessed a constitution of its 

 own, and each was home-made, and differed slightly 

 from the rest. It may be imagined what a variety of 

 ideas must have risen in the process of their manufac- 

 ture. The laws were debated in a general assembly of 

 the citizens ; each community within itself was full of 

 intellectual activity. 



Self-development and independence are too often 

 accompanied by isolation ; and nations, like individuals, 

 become torpid when they retire from the world. But 

 this was not the case with Greece. Though its people 

 were divided into separate States, they all spoke the 

 same language and worshipped the same gods ; and 

 there existed certain institutions which at appointed 

 times assembled them together as a nation. 



Greece is a country which possesses the most extra- 

 ordinary climate in the world. Within two degrees of 

 latitude it ranges from the beech to the palm. In the 

 morning the traveller may be shivering in a snow 

 storm, and viewing a winter landscape of naked trees ; 

 in the afternoon he may be sweltering beneath a tropical 

 sun, with oleanders blooming around him, and oranges 

 shining in the green foliage like balls of gold. From 

 this variety of climate resulted a variety of produce 

 which stimulated the natives to barter and exchange. A 

 central spot was chosen as the market-place, and it was 

 made, for the common protection, a sanctuary of Apollo. 



