plate without some emotion; and the feeling of indifference which philosophy tells him to substitute for it, is an artificial, and not a natural one.

But the Author has never, for an instant, let his enthusiasm blind him to the faults of the Greeks, or influence him in recording them; nor has he ever ranked himself among those Philhel lenes, who have imagined that the cause Greece was to be advanced, by holding up to the world a false picture of the disinterested patriotism, or heroic courage of the Modern Greeks. He has endeavoured impartially, and faithfully, to give an historical Sketch of those events, which have for the last seven years so much interested the American public; it is as yet very imperfect; but should it be indulgently received, he hopes that farther researches, and an investigation of Turkish, as well as Greek character and actions, may enable him to present something, that may merit the name of a complete History of the Revolution in Greece.

INTRODUCTION.

GREECE Proper, is that small section of country situated be tween the thirty-sixth, and fortieth parallels of Northern Latitude; and between the twentieth, and twenty-fourth degrees of Eastern Longitude.

It is bounded on the North, by Macedonia and Albania Proper; on the East, by the Ægean Sea; on the South, by the Mediterranean; and on the West, by the Ionian Sea. Its greatest length does not exceed 250 miles, and its mean breadth not 150; it contains no more than twenty-three thousand square miles, exclusive of Macedonia, Albania Proper, and the Islands.

But this little spot of earth has attracted more attention than any other country, for the last thirty centuries: the inhabitants of that beautiful land have been regarded by the rest of mankind, with alternate feelings of surprise, of fear, of admiration, of pity, and of contempt; till at last, they seemed lost and forgotten by all-when suddenly, they burst from the slumber of ages-they rush upon the arena of their former glory, and loudly challenge the attention, if not the admiration of the world.

No age or nation has as yet refused the tribute of unqualified admiration of the enterprise, the genius, and the taste of the Ancient Greeks; nor this alone, because they were able many centuries ago to eclipse the rest of the world, but, that they then carried the mental powers to a degree of perfection, which has never yet been equalled.

And this admiration is the more unhesitatingly given, since there is not the shadow of a doubt, about the reality of what we admire; it is not to legend, it is not even to history alone, that we trust; the works of the Greek Poets, Orators, Sculptors, and Architects, still exist, and speak for themselves, in language stronger than that of words. The "Blind old man of Scio's rocky isle," is still considered the first of poets; and no modern oratory

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has excelled that which once swayed the Athenian multitude: the greatest modern artists take for their guides the still existing works of Grecian sculptors; and the finest specimens of modern architecture, are but feeble approaches to the grace and symmetry which abounded in Grecian buildings.

The traveller who visits Greece, is at every step presented with some striking proof of the enterprise and genius, of the former inhabitants of the land: if he finds but a solitary column, standing erect among the ruins of a temple,* he sees in that column, such beauty and strength, lightness and stability, blended into such graceful proportion, as convinces him the building must have been the work of a master genius. But when he visits the Temple of Theseus, of which every column is still standing, and which is the finest specimen of architecture, perhaps in the world, there is no bound to his feelings of wonder and admira. tion.

And if those works which chance, or the durability of their materials, has handed down to our age, are so beautiful, and so perfect in their kind; can we not infer, that in the more perishable arts, the Ancient Greeks were as great masters? Could the paintings of Zeuxis and Parhasius be now exhibited, they would be as rich a treat to the artist, as the Rhodian has given them, in the ever-dying throes of Laocoon.

But it is not alone to her poets and orators, to her painters and sculptors, that Greece owes her glory; whether we contemplate her Philosophers, her Statesmen, her Patriots, or her Warriors, we shall find the same extraordinary development of the human faculties, the same brilliant example of greatness and worth.

Greece, by the mental superiority of her inhabitants, overthrew empires; made herself mistress of all around her; and raised herself to a pinnacle of glory, from which she was pre

* This fact is well exemplified in the remains of the Temple of Bacchus in the island of Naxos. Of this Temple there is now only to be seen a gateway, eighteen feet high, and ten broad; formed by two erect slabs of marble, with a third laid across the top. It would seem the simplest thing in the world, to place three slabs in this position, and form a fine gateway; yet the traveller exclaims, that he never saw any thing equal to it; "what beauty, what strength, what proportion, and yet, how simple! well-those old Greeks were wonderful men !" Such are the exclamations, (often it would seem involuntary) of travellers who visit it.

cipitated, rather by her own degeneracy, than by any other

cause.

But the story of her growth to greatness, and her fall to insignificance, is familiar to every one, even to the schoolboy; we shall merely attempt therefore, rapidly to trace the history of the Greeks, through those ages in which their name has been lost to the world, down to the time when it re-appeared with new splendour.

The glories of Greece were not extinguished by the Macedonian conquest, but the spirit of liberty was gone; and though the revival of the Echean league, seemed to promise a revival of freedom, the attempt proved abortive; and before the Romans had triumphed in the East, we find the Greeks divided into three parties, one favouring the Macedonians, a second the Romans, and a third, though the smallest, was in favour of independence. But the arms and influence of Rome prevailed; one hundred and fifty years before Christ, Greece had become virtually a dependant on Rome.

The shadow indeed of liberty was preserved in some parts, particularly in Sparta, which had not been reduced by the Macedonians, and which had successfully resisted the arms of Pyrrhus. In the civil war between Pompey and Cesar, we find the Athenians ranging themselves on the side of the former, as being the party of liberty, while the Spartans espoused the cause of Cesar. The latter, with his characteristic magnanimity, refused to destroy Athens, saying he would spare the children, for their father's sakes.

At the time of the birth of the Saviour, Greece had lost her liberties entirely, nor was she of any importance in the political world; but she was still famous as the great school of philosophy, and the arts, and the resort of all the literary and scientific men of the world; even the Roman scholar could not claim a finished education, until he had made his pilgrimage to Greece.

The first Roman invasion had been cruel, and the fate of the Greeks was sometimes severe; (for the track of Mummius was not the only one marked with blood); but under the Emperors Trajan, Adrian, Constantine, and some others, the Greeks were not only well treated, but highly honoured. Cesar had rebuilt