And if one may descend to more trifling particulars, it is to this same lordship of the sea that the Athenians owe the discovery, in the first place, of many of the luxuries of life through intercourse with other countries. So that the choice things of Sicily and Italy, of Cyprus and Egypt and Lydia, of Pontus or Peloponnese, or wheresoever else it be, are all swept, as it were, into one centre, and all owing, as I say, to their maritime empire. And again, in process of listening to every form of speech, (5) they have selected this from one place and that from another--for themselves. So much so that while the rest of the Hellenes employ (6) each pretty much their own peculiar mode of speech, habit of life, and style of dress, the Athenians have adopted a composite type, (7) to which all sections of Hellas, and the foreigner alike, have contributed. (1) Reading after Kirchhoff, {ettous ge... kan ei meizon en, ton dia k.t.l.} See Thuc. i. 143; Isocr. "de Pace," 169 A; Plut. "Them." 4 (Clough, i. 235). (2) Lit. "they are superior to their allies." (3) Reading with Kirchhoff, {dia khreian... dia deos}. (4) Or, "the army marching along the seaboard to the rescue." (5) Or, "a variety of dialects." (6) Or, "maintain somewhat more." (7) Or, "have contracted a mixed style, bearing traces of Hellenic and foreign influence alike." See Mahaffy, "Hist. of Greek Lit." vol. ii. ch. x. p. 257 (1st ed.); cf. Walt Whitman, "Preface to" original edition of "Leaves of Grass," p. 29--"The English language befriends the grand American expression: it is brawny enough and limber and full enough, on the tough stock of a race, who through all change of circumstances was never without the idea of a political liberty, which is the animus of all liberty; it has attracted the terms of daintier and gayer and subtler and more elegant tongues." As regards sacrifices and temples and festivals and sacred enclosures, the People sees that it is not possible for every poor citizen to do sacrifice and hold festival, or to set up (8) temples and to inhabit a large and beautiful city. But it has hit upon a means of meeting the difficulty. They sacrifice--that is, the whole state sacrifices--at the public cost a large number of victims; but it is the People that keeps holiday and distributes the victims by lot amongst its members. Rich men have in some cases private gymnasia and baths with dressing-rooms, (9) but the People takes care to have built at the public cost (10) a number of palaestras, dressing-rooms, and bathing establishments for its own special use, and the mob gets the benefit of the majority of these, rather than the select few or the well-to-do. (8) Reading with Kirchhoff, {istasthai}. (9) See Jebb, "Theophr. Char." vii. 18, p. 202. (10) Reading with Kirchhoff, {demosia}.