munity to develop its own
characteristic life. These communities had a common language,
differing somewhat in dialect, and the foundation of a common religion,
but there never could exist sufficient similarity of character or unity
of sentiment to permit them to unite into a strong central nation. A
variety of life is evinced everywhere. Those who came in contact with
the ocean differed from those who dwelt in the interior, shut in by the
mountains. The contact with the sea gives breadth of thought,
largeness of life, while those who are enclosed by mountains lead a
narrow life, intense in thought and feeling. Without the protection of
nature, the Grecian states probably would never have developed the high
state of civilization which they reached.

Rome presents a similar example. It is true that the Italian tribes
that entered the peninsula had considerable force of character and
thorough development as they were about to enter upon a period of
civilization. Like the Greeks, the discipline of their early Aryan
ancestors had given them much of strength and character. Yet the
favorable location of Italy, bounded on the north by a high mountain
range and enclosed by the sea, gave abundant opportunity for the
national germs to thrive and grow. Left thus to themselves, dwelling
under the protection of the snow-capped Alps, and surrounded by the
beneficent sea, national life expanded, government and law developed
and thrived, and the arts of civilized life were practised. The
national greatness of the Romans may in part be attributed to the
period of repose in which they pursued unmolested the arts of peace
before their era of conquest began.

Among the mountains of Switzerland are people who claim never to have
been conquered. In the wild rush of the {144} barbarian hordes into
the Roman Empire they were not overrun. They retain to this day their
early sentiments of liberty; their greatness is in freedom and
equality. The mountains alone protected them from the assaults of the
enemy and the crush of moving tribes.

Other nations might be mentioned that owe much to geographical
position. More than once in the early part of her history it protected
Spain from destruction. The United States, in a large measure, owes
her independent existence to the fact that the ocean rolls between her
and the mother country. On the other hand, Ireland has been hampered
in her struggle for independent government on account o