unsparing hand.(1841) Their moral system also prescribed the observance of the proper mean; and it was in this that the temperance (σωφροσύνη) which so distinguished them consisted.(1842) One great object of the worship of Apollo was to maintain the even balance of the mind, and to remove everything that might disquiet the thoughts, rouse the mind to passion, or dim its purity and brightness.(1843) The Doric nature required an equal and regular harmony, and preserving that character in all its parts.(1844) Dissonances, even if they combined into harmony, were not suited to the taste of that nation. The national tunes were doubtless not of a soft or pleasing melody; the general accent of the language had the character of command or dictation, not of question or entreaty. The Dorians were contented with themselves, with the powers to whom they owed their existence and happiness; and therefore they never complained. They looked not to future, but to present existence. To preserve this, and to preserve it in enjoyment, was their highest object. Everything beyond this boundary was mist and darkness, and everything dark they supposed the Deity to hate.(1845) They lived in themselves, and for themselves.(1846) Hence man was the chief and almost only object which attracted their attention. The same feelings may also be perceived in their religion, which was always unconnected with the worship of any natural object, and originated from their own reflection and conceptions.(1847) And to the same source may perhaps be traced their aversion to mechanical and agricultural labour.(1848) In short, the whole race bears generally the stamp and character of the _male sex_; the desire of assistance and connexion, of novelty and of curiosity, the characteristics of the female sex, being directly opposed to the nature of the Dorians, which bears the mark of independence and subdued strength. 4. This description of the Doric character, to which many other features might be added, is sufficient for our present purpose; and will serve to prove that the worship of Apollo, the ancient constitution of Crete and that of Lycurgus, the manners, arts, and literature of the Dorians, were the productions of one and the same national individual. To what extent this character was influenced by external circumstances cannot be ascertained; but though its features were impressed by nature, they might not in all places have been developed, and would have been lost without the fostering assistance of an inland and mountainous region. The country is to a nation what the body is to the soul: it may influence it partially, and assist its growth and increase; but it cannot give strength and impulse, or imprint that original mark of the Deity which is set upon our minds.