4. It seems probable that about B. C. 2000, or in the time of Abraham, the progenitors of the Greeks reached that country from the highlands east of the Caspian Sea. Greece extends about 220 miles from north to south, and 160 from east to west, with a very irregular outline, and contains about 34,000 square miles, much of this being mountainous and barren. The separation of the different states by these mountain ranges much favored the disposition of the people to local independence, and formed a bold and hardy race. Access from three sides to the sea led to commerce and colonization, while it brought them into frequent contact with the most civilized people of the east without endangering their independence, and the lofty mountains on the north were an effectual barrier to the irruption of the wild and wandering tribes of northern Asia and Europe. Early in the history of the Greeks colonies came from Egypt and Phenicia and introduced the arts of those countries, then the most civilized in the world. This was about the time that the Jewish nation was founded by Moses, and we can easily understand that the native intelligence of the Greeks and their teachable spirit, led them to profit greatly by this early light. 5. The most celebrated traditions of this people relate to an expedition by the collective young chivalry of Greece, called the “Argonautic,” which indicates their enterprising spirit and early acquaintance with the sea, and also seems to have introduced the habit of planting colonies. Two wars against Thebes, in the central part of Greece, induced by the ambition and combinations of the kings of the various States, seem to have made much impression on the whole nation, while a combination of nearly all of its petty sovereigns, gathering an immense army, stated at 100,000 men, to punish an injury done to one of their number by the King of Troy, on the opposite coast of Asia, occupied ten years, and filled the whole country with confusion. This was soon followed by an event called the Return of the Heracleidæ, or descendants of Hercules—a mythic hero of great celebrity—to their ancient dominion in the southern peninsula, called the Pelopenesus. It appears to have been attended by the migration of one tribe into the domains of another, which they forcibly dispossessed and produced the emigration of the conquered people into Asia, where they formed extensive colonies—independent—but preserving a love for their race, and forming an important element in Greek progress.