| [p. 107]
nature of all its inhabitants and of all its vegetation.
For everything in Asia grows to far greater beauty
and size ; the one region is less wild than the other,
the character of the inhabitants is milder and more
gentle. The cause of this is the temperate climate,
because it lies towards the east midway between
the risings | That is, the winter rising and the summer rising. |
of
the sun, and farther away than is
Europe from the cold. Growth and freedom from
wildness are most fostered when nothing is forcibly
predominant, but equality in every respect prevails.
Asia, however, is not everywhere uniform ; the
region, however, situated midway between the heat
and the cold is very fruitful, very wooded and very
mild ; it has splendid water, whether from rain or
from springs. While it is not burnt up with the
heat nor dried up by drought and want of water, it is
not oppressed with cold, nor yet damp and wet with
excessive rains and snow. Here the harvests are
likely to be plentiful, both those from seed and those
which the earth bestows of her own accord, the
fruit of which men use, turning wild to cultivated
and transplanting them to a suitable soil. The
cattle too reared there are likely to flourish, and
especially to bring forth the sturdiest young and
rear them to be very fine creatures.| Or, if πυκν́οτατα and
κ́αλλιδτα be adverbs, "they are very
prolifio and the best of mothers." |
The men
will be well nourished, of very fine physique and
very tall, differing from one another but little either
in physique or stature. This region, both in character
and in the mildness of its seasons, might fairly
be said to bear a close resemblance to spring
|
