=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.=—­The climate of Greece is mild.  In Athens it freezes hardly once in twenty years; in summer the heat is moderated by the breeze from the sea.[46] Today the people still lie in the streets from the month of May to September.  The air is cool and transparent; for many leagues could once be seen the crest of the statue of Pallas.  The contours of distant mountains are not, as with us, enveloped in haze, but show a clear line against the clear sky.  It is a beautiful country which urges man to take life as a feast, for everything is happy about him.  “Walking at night in the gardens, listening to the grasshoppers, playing the lute in the clear of the moon, going to drink at the spring at the mountain, carrying with him some wine that he may drink while he sings, spending the days in dancing—­these are Greek pleasures, the joys of a race poor, economical, and eternally young.”

=Simplicity of Greek Life.=—­In this country men are not melted with the heat nor stiffened with cold; they live in the open air gay and at slight expense.  Food in great quantity is not required, nor warm clothing, nor a comfortable house.  The Greek could live on a handful of olives and a sardine.  His entire clothing consisted of sandals, a tunic, a large mantle; very often he went bare-footed and bare-headed.  His house was a meagre and unsubstantial building; the air easily entered through the walls.  A couch with some coverings, a coffer, some beautiful vases, a lamp,—­this was his furniture.  The walls were bare and whitened with lime.  This house was only a sleeping place.

THE PEOPLE

=Origin of the Greeks.=—­The people who inhabited this charming little land were an Aryan people, related to the Hindoos and the Persians, and like them come from the mountains of Asia or the steppes beyond the Caspian Sea.  The Greeks had forgotten the long journey made by their ancestors; they said that they, like the grasshoppers, were the children of the soil.[47] But their language and the names of their gods leave no doubt of their origin....  Like all the Aryans, the primitive Greeks nourished themselves with milk and with the flesh of their herds; they moved about under arms, always ready to fight, and grouped themselves in tribes governed by patriarchs.