The Greeks

Had the Greeks been placed in Scandinavia or Iceland, or even Spain, would not their genius have been wholly wasted? Had their isles and peninsulas been occupied by people of Roman type, where would have been the delicate intellectual and artistic culture?

Indeed, the Greeks themselves were not the same in all their branches. Had the whole race been Dorian we should hardly have seen an Athens. Not only was Greece thus rightly placed with reference to Africa and Asia, and provided with a people able to profit by such opportunities, it had a third cooperating factor of physical conformation. It was sheltered against invasion far more effectually than Italy, by lofty mountains like a series of watertight compartments in a ship. The small size of its isolated territories led to the formation of great numbers of small states, none sufficiently powerful to crush the individuality.