For a generation or two they were little
more than a band of nomads; but at last they came to a land where they
fought and conquered and settled down."
"Yes? I seem to have heard of them. Please go on."
"It was a little land, rather curiously situated between the Orient and
the West, between the desert and the sea. It had great advantages both
for seclusion within itself and communication with the world outside. If
a divine power had wanted to nourish a tender shoot, till it grew strong
enough to ripen seed that would blow readily into every corner of the
globe, it probably couldn't have done better than to have planted it
just there."
She nodded, to show that she followed him.
"But this little land had also the dangers attendant on its advantages.
To the north of it there developed a great power; to the south of it
another. Each turned greedy eyes on the little buffer state. And the
little buffer state began to be very wise and politic and energetic. It
said, 'If we don't begin to take active measures, the Assyrian, or the
Egyptian, whoever gets here first, will eat us up. But if we buy off the
one, he will protect us against the other.'"
"That seems reasonable.
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