The freeborn wanderer of the mountain air;
Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,
Still in his beams Mendeli's marbles glare;
Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but nature still is fair." [28]
[Footnote 25: ][ (return) ] Pindar.
[Footnote 26: ][ (return) ] Sophocles, "Œdipus at Colonna."
[Footnote 27: ][ (return) ] "Cosmos," vol. ii. p. 25.
[Footnote 28: ][ (return) ] Canto ii., v. lxxxvi., "Childe Harold."
The effect of this scenery upon the character, the imagination, the taste of the Athenians must have been immense. Under the influence of such sublime objects, the human mind becomes gifted as with inspiration, and is by nature filled with poetic images. "Greece became the birth-place of taste, of art, and eloquence, the chosen sanctuary of the muses, the prototype of all that is graceful, and dignified, and grand in sentiment and action."
And now, if we have succeeded in clearly presenting and properly grouping the facts, and in estimating the influence of geographical position and surroundings on national character, we have secured the natural criteria by which we examine, and even correct the portraiture of the Athenian character usually presented by the historian.