Dniester, in Euxine, flowing each
of them, measured arrow-straight, as far as from Edinburgh to London,
with windings,[25] the Vistula six hundred miles, and the Dniester
five--count them together for a thousand miles of _moat_, between Europe
and the Desert, reaching from Dantzic to Odessa.

[Footnote 24: Taking the 'San' branch of upper Vistula.]

[Footnote 25: Note, however, generally that the strength of a river,
caeteris paribus, is to be estimated by its straight course, windings
being almost always caused by flats in which it can receive no
tributaries.]

11. Having got your Europe moated off into this manageable and
comprehensible space, you are next to fix the limits which divide the
four Gothic countries, Britain, Gaul, Germany, and Dacia, from the
four Classic countries, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Lydia.

There is no other generally opponent term to 'Gothic' but 'Classic':
and I am content to use it, for the sake of practical breadth and
clearness, though its precise meaning for a little while remains
unascertained. Only get the geography well into your mind, and the
nomenclature will settle itself at its leisure.

12. Broadly, then, you have sea between Britain and Spain--Pyrenees
between Gaul and Spain--Alps between Germany and Italy--Danube between
Dacia and Greece. You must consider everything south of the Danube as
Greek, variously influenced from Athens on one side, Byzantium on the
other: then, across the AEgean, you have the great country absurdly
called Asia Minor, (for we might just as well call Greece, Europe Minor,
or Cornwall, England Minor,) but which is properly to be remembered as
'Lydia,' the country which infects with passion, and tempts with wealth;
which taught the Lydian measure in music and softened the Greek language
on its border into Ionic; which gave to ancient history the tale of
Troy, and to Christian history, the glow, and the decline, of the Seven
Churches.

13. Opposite to these four countries in the south, but separated from
them either by sea or desert, are another four, as easily
remembered--Morocco, Libya, Egypt, and Arabia.

Morocco, virtually consisting of the chain of Atlas and the coasts
depending on it, may be most conveniently thought of as including the
modern Morocco and Algeria, with the Canaries as a dependent group of
islands.

Libya, in like manner, will include the modern Tunis and Tripoli: it
will begin on the west with St. Augustine's town of Hippo; a