3. To determine with any degree of precision how much climate and the nature of the soil contributed to the formation of this dialect, would be a matter of extreme difficulty; although the comparison of the corresponding dialects of different languages with the various localities in which each was formed may lead to several interesting observations. There can be no doubt that a mountain life is favourable to the formation of the pure, broad, and long vowels, such as Α and Ω; as also that a residence in the lowlands and on the coast produces rather modifications of the long vowels(1927) and short syllables. It should, however, be borne in mind, that the influence of these causes upon language was in full operation at one period only, when the organs generally evinced greater pliancy in adapting themselves to the various peculiarities of situation. In later times, Doric was spoken in maritime towns, as low German is now in mountains and highlands. We must likewise remember, that not only the country, but also the people, bore a distinct national character, the influence of which upon their language must have been full as great as of the former. The hypothesis that the ancient dialects were determined more by internal than external influence, more by the nature of the men than the influence of place, is confirmed by a remarkable passage of Jamblichus,(1928) who had probably derived this sentiment from the schools of the early Pythagoreans: he pronounces the Doric dialect to be the most ancient and best, comparing it, on account of the sounding vowels with which it abounded, to the enharmonic style of music, as he does the Ionic and Æolic dialects to the chromatic style. The only meaning of this remark can be, that the long vowels Α and Ω were pronounced in as clear and marked a manner (particularly when, as was often the case, they were circumflexed) as a bar separated by a double bar in the tetrachord strung to the enharmonic pitch, so much used for music of the Doric style.(1929) Otherwise a manly character is always attributed to the Doric dialect:(1930) its fitness for solemn occasions and simple expression is shown by the literary remains which have come down to us.