Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/51

30 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. that their sons, as mercenaries of foreign powers, saw a great deal of the outside world, in part to their being surrounded by states in full possession of the benefits which the proximity of the ocean brought with it. Without outlooks towards the sea, it may be questioned whether the Aryan tribes which occupied the Hellenic peninsula would have progressed beyond the lawless, semi-bar- barous stage of the modern Albanians, who are tossed to and fro and spend their strength and activity in petty feuds. If ever the natural lot of a country was fated to have its population parcelled up into an almost indefinite number of divisions, wherein what is termed ** clan " dominated, that was assuredly Greece. It is made up of a number of compartments in touch with one another at their base ; to get out of them one must needs now toil up steep mountain sides, now struggle through the windings of narrow lochs, often rendered impassable by the overflow of torrents after storms of rain ; or one is obliged to cross passes some of which are blocked up by snow during the winter months. Each indi- vidual group seems doomed to perpetual isolation, or rooted and spell-bound to the valley in which it has established itself. Wherever man finds himself placed in such conditions as these, a broad, fruitful, and national development, one likely to play a great part in history, is not to be expected. If here matters turned out quite differently from what might have been looked for, it was owing to a special physical characteristic, which acted as a corrective on the effects of the general configuration of the ground. These compartments or boxes, if the expression be allowed, had but three walls ; they lacked the one which would have shut out the sea from them, and so deprived them of a clear open field on that side. Through this open window, then, were commenced those relations which along the mountain lines, interposing like partition walls between the several com- monwealths, were at all times fitful, difficult, and rare. The sea- route permitted everything to pass ; be it men, merchandise, or ideas ; if a tempest closed it, it was not for long — a few days perhaps ; but as soon as the wind bated and the swell went down, light, swift boats once more sallied forth on their useful mission, the effect of which was to link together, by perpetual visits to and fro and mutual borrowings, all those districts between which Nature had set an abundance of lofty barriers. The uninterrupted flow of these relations was assured by the continuity and regularity