maintain a sturdy independence for many hundred years. The numerous
harbors and bays which subdivide Greece invited to a maritime life,
and at a very early time, the descendants of the original shepherds
became skillful navigators and courageous adventurers.

4. The voyages of Aeneas and Ulysses in the siege of Troy, and those
of Jason in search of the golden fleece, and of Perseus to the court
of King Minos, are the mythological accounts, embellished by
imagination and distorted by time, of what were real voyages. Crossing
the Mediterranean, Grecian adventurers became acquainted with the
Egyptians, then the most civilized people of the world; and from Egypt
they took back to their native country the germs of the arts and
sciences which afterward made Greece so famous.

5. Thence improvements went forward with rapid strides. Hints received
from Egypt were reproduced in higher forms. Massive temples became
light and airy, rude sculpture became beautiful by conforming to
natural forms, and hieroglyphics developed into the letters which
Cadmus invented or improved. Schools were established, athletic sports
were encouraged, aesthetic taste was developed, until in the arts, in
philosophy, in science, and in literature the Greeks took the lead of
all peoples.

6. As population increased, colonies went out, settling upon the
adjacent coasts of Asia and upon the islands farther west. In Asia the
Greek colonists were subject to the Persian Empire, which then
extended its rule over all Western Asia, and claimed dominion over
Africa and Eastern Europe. The Greeks, fresh from the freedom of their
native land, could not patiently endure the extortions of the Persian
government, to which their own people submitted without question;