threatened by an unoccupied warlike population longing for a share in the government. But these efforts were only partially crowned with success, and though in the time of absolute democracy many citizens practised occupations connected with money, yet the old idea still prevailed that those really stood on a higher footing whose fortune permitted them to live without any definite occupation, and we constantly meet with traces of it even in a philosopher like Socrates, whose statement that idleness was the sister of freedom reflects the opinion of the majority with particular emphasis. The prejudice against many professions was not equally directed against all. Agriculture was least liable to it. In the heroic period, agriculture was the chief occupation, not only of the lower classes, but even of the nobles and princes, who regarded it as no disgrace to perform with their own hands, or superintend, many duties connected with farming. It was natural that a change should be gradually introduced in these patriarchal conditions, and this was due not only to political revolutions, but also to the advance of civilisation, and the growth of industrial and commercial life in Greece; yet agriculture always remained one of the most respected occupations, especially in those states whose geographical position cut them off from trade, and the nature of whose soil was suited for agriculture and cattle-rearing; in these places the citizens too took part in these occupations, though in other places, especially at Sparta, any work performed with the hands was regarded as unsuitable for citizens, and was assigned to slaves or free subjects. In the large towns, such as Athens, where trade and industry attained a great height, and democracy, growing freer and freer, tended to advance idleness by official gifts to citizens, such as the show-money and public meals, agriculture lost in general estimation, and the citizen of a large town regarded the industrious countryman as a creature of a lower rank. This was but natural, and we find analogy for it in many of our modern conditions. Local circumstances naturally had a good deal to do in determining the position occupied by an agricultural population. Where the land was good and the profits considerable, the farmer occupied a better position than in those places where but a poor harvest rewarded his toil. The soil of Greece was not everywhere suited for agriculture, and in many places it required the most careful labour to win any fruits from it. In Hellas, the mountainous districts are more extensive than the plains suitable for cultivation; consequently in many places they had to construct artificial terraces, because the stony ground would not otherwise have borne any fruit. In other places too, want of water, which in the hot season of the year often amounted to actual drought, necessitated artificial irrigation by means of canals and drainage, and again, the