Greek Thinkers - A History of Ancient Philosophy #250647

Was matched at the Opposite extreme by the extent and cur vature of the coast. Her sea-board was larger than Spain's, her mainland smaller than Portugal's. Other conditions, too, fostered this variety Of natural gifts. The most diverse trades and professions were practised in the closest proximity. Seamen and shepherds, hunters and husband men, flourished side by side, and the fusion of their families produced in later generations a sum Of talents and aptitudes complementary to each other. Again, the good fairies who presided at the birth of Greece could have laid no more salutary blessing in her cradle than the i011 was ever her familiar friend. It worked in three ways for the advancement of her civilization. It acted as a spur to compel her to exert all her powers it served as a further defence against invasion, for the comparatively poor country must have seemed but indifferent booty — a fact noted in connection with Attica by the most philosophical historian of antiquity; and last, and chiefly, it lent a forcible impulse to commerce, navigation, emigration, and the foundation of. Colonies. The bays that offer the best harbourage on the Greek.