1. So wonderful is the physical organization of Greece, that each of its parts has received its peculiar destination and a distinct character; it is like a body whose members are different in form, but between which a mutual connexion and dependence necessarily exists. The northern districts as far as Thessaly are the nutritive organs which from time to time introduced fresh and vigorous supplies: as we approach the south, its structure assumes a more marked and decided form, and is impressed with more peculiar features. Attica and the islands may be considered as extremities, which, as it were, served as the active instruments for the body of Greece, and by which it was kept in constant connexion with others; while Peloponnesus, on the other hand, seems formed for a state of life, occupied more with its own than external concerns, and whose interests and feelings centred in itself. As it was the extremity of Greece, there also appeared to be an end set by nature to all change of place and habitation; and hence the character of the Peloponnesians was firm, steady, and exclusive. With good reason therefore was the region where these principles predominated considered by the Greeks as the centre and acropolis(247) of their countries; and those who possessed it were universally acknowledged to rank as first in Greece. 2. This character of Peloponnesus will become more evident, if we examine the peculiar nature of its mountain-chains. Though the Isthmus of Corinth connected the peninsula with the continent by a narrow neck of land, yet it was not traversed in its whole length by any continuous chain of mountains; the Œnean hills being entirely separated from the mountains of Peloponnesus.(248) The principal elevations in Peloponnesus form very nearly a circle, the circumference of which passes over the mountains of Pholoë, Lampe, Aroanius, Cyllene, Artemisium, Parthenium, and Parnon; then over Boreum, and from thence up to the northern rise of mount Taygetus, and finally over mount Lycaon along the river Alpheus. The highest ridge appears to be that part of Cyllene which looks to Parnon: the height of Cyllene, according to the statement of Dicæarchus,(249) was not quite 15 stadia; according to another measurement, it was nine stadia wanting 80 feet;(250) a considerable height, when it is remembered that the sea is near, and that Peloponnesus is the last link of the great chain, which runs down from the north of Macedonia. But the eastern plains also, for instance that of Tegea, are at a great height above the sea, and are often covered with snow late in the spring.(251) Now from the circle of mountains which has been pointed out, all the rivers of any note take their rise; and from it all the mountainous ranges diverge, which form the many headlands and points of Peloponnesus. The interior part of the country however has only one opening towards the western sea, through which all its waters flow out united in the Alpheus. The peculiar