"那很好啊，"你会说，"注重适度与完美当然是一种优秀的德性。可是为什么在古代只有古希腊人一个民族发展了这种素质呢？"作为对你问题的回答，我必须讲一讲古希腊人的生活状态。

　　The people of Egypt or Mesopotamia had been the "subjects" of a mysterious Supreme Ruler who lived miles and miles away in a dark palace and who was rarely seen by the masses of the population. The Greeks on the other hand, were "free citizens" of a hundred independent little "cities"the largest of which counted fewer inhabitants than a large modern village. When a peasant who lived in Ur said that he was a Babylonian he meant that he was one of millions of other people who paid tribute to the king who at that particular moment happened to be master of western Asia. But when a Greek said proudly that he was an Athenian or a Theban he spoke of a small town, which was both his home and his country and which recognised no master but the will of the people in the market-place.

　　在埃及或者美索不达米亚，人们仅仅是一个神秘莫测的最高统治者的"臣民"。这位统治者住在遥远的宫廷里面，统治着他庞大的帝国。他的绝大部分臣民一生都未见过他一面。可希腊人正好相反：他们是分属数百个小型"城邦"的"自由 公民"。这些城邦中最大的，其人口也超不过一个现代的大型村庄。当一个住在乌尔的农民说自己是巴比伦人时，他的意思是，他属于数百万向当时正好是西亚统治者的国王纳税进贡的大众之一。可当一个希腊人自豪地称自己是雅典人或底比斯"人，他谈到的是那个既是他的家园又是他的国家的小城镇。那里不承认有什么最高的统治者，一切由集市上的人们说了算。

　　To the Greek, his fatherland was the place where he was born; where he had spent his earliest years playing hide and seek amidst the forbidden rocks of the Acropolis; where he had grown into manhood with a thousand other boys and girls, whose nicknames were as familiar to him as those of your own schoolmates. His Fatherland was the holy soil where his father and mother lay buried.

　　对希腊人来说，祖国就是他出生的地方，是他在雅典卫城的石墙间玩捉迷藏游戏而度过童年的地方，是他与许多男孩女孩一起长大成人 的地方。他对他们每一个人的熟悉就如同你知道班级里所有同学的绰号一样。他的祖国是他的父母亲埋骨于此的圣洁土壤。