Ebook A History of Greece

Thus may be explained to some extent the sudden promi nence of the city of Thebes. The life and government of the Athenians recall to our mind the countries which Nature has made fertile by many and great rivers. The life and constitution of Sparta recall the lands in which art and indus try, by an economical use of the few streams running through them, and by the construction of various canals, have suc ceeded in making fertile even the most arid plains. But the life and constitution of the Thebans were for a long time almost unproductive; until, from a powerful sentiment of liberty and ambition stirring the lowest and apparently in sensible depths, there suddenly burst forth a living spring which changed the desert into a garden.