DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1004#0102
68 POSITION AND CLIMATE
eloquence of the Orator, and in the speculations of the Philosopher. Besides
this, it exhibits itself in visible shapes; it is the soul which animates and
informs the most beautiful creations of Art. The works of the Architect
and of the Sculptor, in every quarter of the globe, speak of Attica; of Attica
the galleries of Princes and Nations are full; of Attica the temples and
palaces and libraries and council-rooms of Capital Cities give sensible witness,
and will do for ever.
ut above all, it is due to the intellectual results
) produced by the inhabitants of this small Canton
of Europe, that the language in which they spoke
and in which they wrote, became the vernacular
tongue of the whole world. The genius of Athe-
nians made their speech universal: the treasures
which they deposited in it rendered its acquisition
essential to all: and thus the sway, unlimited in
extent and invincible in power, which was wielded over the universe by
the arms of Rome, was exercised over Rome itself by the arts of Athens.
To Attica, therefore, it is to be attributed that, first, precisely at the season
when such a channel of general communication was most needed, there ex-
isted a common language in the world; and secondly, that this language was
Greek: or, in other words, that there was, at the time of the first pro-
pagation of the Gospel, a tongue in which it could be preached to the
whole earth, and that Greek, the most worthy of such a distinction,
was the language of Inspiration,—the tongue of the earliest preachers
and writers of Christianity. Therefore we may regard Attica, viewed in
this light, as engaged in the same cause and leagued in a holy con-
federacy with Palestine; we may consider the Philosophers and Orators
and Poets of this country as preparing the way, by a special dispensation
of God's providence, for the Apostles and Fathers and Apologists of the
Church of Christ.
Such, then, is a rapid sketch of the influence which was exercised on
the destinies of the world, and of the manner and degree in which the
highest interests of mankind have been, still are, and will for ever be,
affected, by a small province whose physical dimensions may be said to bear
the same ratio to those of Greece, which the estate of Alcibiades did to the
entire territory of Attica itself.
eloquence of the Orator, and in the speculations of the Philosopher. Besides
this, it exhibits itself in visible shapes; it is the soul which animates and
informs the most beautiful creations of Art. The works of the Architect
and of the Sculptor, in every quarter of the globe, speak of Attica; of Attica
the galleries of Princes and Nations are full; of Attica the temples and
palaces and libraries and council-rooms of Capital Cities give sensible witness,
and will do for ever.
ut above all, it is due to the intellectual results
) produced by the inhabitants of this small Canton
of Europe, that the language in which they spoke
and in which they wrote, became the vernacular
tongue of the whole world. The genius of Athe-
nians made their speech universal: the treasures
which they deposited in it rendered its acquisition
essential to all: and thus the sway, unlimited in
extent and invincible in power, which was wielded over the universe by
the arms of Rome, was exercised over Rome itself by the arts of Athens.
To Attica, therefore, it is to be attributed that, first, precisely at the season
when such a channel of general communication was most needed, there ex-
isted a common language in the world; and secondly, that this language was
Greek: or, in other words, that there was, at the time of the first pro-
pagation of the Gospel, a tongue in which it could be preached to the
whole earth, and that Greek, the most worthy of such a distinction,
was the language of Inspiration,—the tongue of the earliest preachers
and writers of Christianity. Therefore we may regard Attica, viewed in
this light, as engaged in the same cause and leagued in a holy con-
federacy with Palestine; we may consider the Philosophers and Orators
and Poets of this country as preparing the way, by a special dispensation
of God's providence, for the Apostles and Fathers and Apologists of the
Church of Christ.
Such, then, is a rapid sketch of the influence which was exercised on
the destinies of the world, and of the manner and degree in which the
highest interests of mankind have been, still are, and will for ever be,
affected, by a small province whose physical dimensions may be said to bear
the same ratio to those of Greece, which the estate of Alcibiades did to the
entire territory of Attica itself.