than it could as corn-land.
Doubtless we owe it to a divine dispensation that our land is veined
with silver; if we consider how many neighbouring states lie round us
by land and sea and yet into none of them does a single thinnest vein of
silver penetrate.

(3) Lit. "those good things which the gods afford in their seasons."

(4) Or, "arise," or "are fashioned."

Indeed it would be scarcely irrational to maintain that the city of
Athens lies at the navel, not of Hellas merely, but of the habitable
world. So true is it, that the farther we remove from Athens the
greater the extreme of heat or cold to be encountered; or to use another
illustration, the traveller who desires to traverse the confines of
Hellas from end to end will find that, whether he voyages by sea or by
land, he is describing a circle, the centre of which is Athens. (5)

(5) See "Geog. of Brit. Isles." J. R. and S. A. Green, ch. i. p. 7:
"London, in fact, is placed at what is very nearly the geometrical
centre of those masses of land which make up the earth surface of
the globe, and is thus more than any city of the world the natural
point of convergence for its different lines of navigation," etc.
The natural advantages of Boeotia are similarly set forth by
Ephorus. Cf. Strab. ix. 2, p. 400.

Once more, this land though not literally sea-girt has all the
advantages of an island, being accessible to every wind that blows, and
can invite to its bosom or waft from its shore all products, since it is
peninsular; whilst by land it is the emporium of many markets, as being
a portion of the continent.

Lastly, while the majority of states have barbarian neighbours,
the source of many troubles, Athens has as her next-door neighbours
civilised states which are themselves far remote from the barbarians.

II

All these advantages, to repeat what I have said, may, I believe, be
traced primarily to the soil and position of Attica itself. But these
natural blessings may be added to: in the first place, by a careful
handling of our resident alien (1) population. And, for my part, I can
hardly conceive of a more splendid source of revenue than lies open
in this direction. Here you have a self-supporting class of residents
conferring large benefits upon the state, and instead of receiving
payment (2) themselves, contributing on the contrary to the gain of
the exchequer by the sojourners' tax. (3) Nor, under the term careful
han