Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-12-08
from Blackwood's Magazine for October.l
GREECE. No. /.
II 0nchudeG.l

~
ergy of the Greek mind, without recollecting
under how slight stimulant il threw out its
powers. Its true, tina, in the free republics OF
Greece some kinds Of ability were the very
wings Of ambitions; the soldier, the statesman,
and the orator, had the noblest vision Of public
life gli,tering and expanding before them. But
without the art of printing, without the general
taste for reading which has sprung up from
that art, that second gift of living soul, and a
speech comprehensive as the world, writing
wanted vast portion OF its latter excitements;
yet what literature OF modern nations can COM
pete with dead Greece In the multitude of her
works Of genius! Yet have we the tenth part
Of these that deserved 10 be immortal! or what
have we but the remnant snatched from the
plumber of her cities, the ruin of her libraries,
the utter dispersion and waste OF her fortunes!
Glorious and unriyalled relics Of mind more
worthy of homage than all the saints of Rome,
yet still but relics, sacred fragments the sacred
Jewels of magnihcence that all the wealth Of
latter days must despair TO outshine! What
comparison can the literature Of France, from
The time OF Francis the First to the present
hour, from the commencement Of the sixteenth
century TO the nineteenth century with all its
royal patronage, with its command of panegy-
rio from all Europe, with its opulent encourage
1uents to ability, sustain against the solitary IL
terature oil a land scarcely larger than one Of
its provinces What comparison can Germa-
ny, with her. crowd of universities, her indefa-
,igable love of literary labor, her native yigor
Of intellect, her host of authors covering the
land! What comparison can even England,
the land nearest TO Greece in spirit and genius,
with her boundless empire, with her unsparing
patronage, her unlimited freedom Of discussion,
her nntameable mind? Here the rivalry may
be tried on The largest scale; yet for our orato-
ry, as for all the noble public arts, for our ar
chitecture, for sculpture, for all our models
Of grace, beauty, and grandeur, to what other
shrine do we kneel than that broken monument
Of glory and mistortune
With this evidence of the original distinction
Of the Greek mind, it becomes important TO
know how far the lineage has been preserved.
II is the conclusion Of the most competent ira
yellers, that The true Greek blood has been pre-
served to an extraordinary degree. The unan-
swerable argument is, the permanence OF the
language. Of great changes OF population the
first characteristic is the change of language
In all the other European countries, the ANCIENT
language has been superseded or mingled with
the foreign itliom until il has become new di-
alect distinct from both. In Greece we can
trace the direct influx Of strangers and settlers,
by the same evidence, change OF language in
their district. The Walachian colony that has
settled on Mount Pindus, and on the rhessali-
an and Macedonian border, is Wailachian still,
and speaks the I.atinized dialect that it brought
from Dacia. The Albanian settled in B9otia,
Attica, and Argolis, has not forgotten his ma.
tive dialect in two hundred years, and may re-
tain it for ages to come. In Asia Minor, where
the Turks are the more numerous, the Greeks,
original and settlers, have adopted a mixed lam
guage nearly uninteligible to the Peninsula
Where the Thessalians have mingled with The
Albanian colonist,-their language is mixture
Of Greek and Albanian. The Greek of Attica
bears the traces of its Italian dukes. Wherever
it can be shown that the stranger had settled,
there has he left his stamp upon the language,
the obvious inference must be, that where he
has not left that stamp, The ancient race still
survive. There is no other country OF Europe
in which the native language is so slightly
changed, or so extensively spoken. The Ro-
maic is the tongue Of the whole territory that
was included in Hellas, the land from the Ie-
harlan Promontory to Upper Macedonia with
the islands and coasts Of the Egean. The dis
tinctions between the Romaic and the an
Client Greek are trivial, and the work not OF IN
vasion, bu, time. Auxiliary verbs are the Chief
introduction, but those verbs are Greek. The
written character is still that of their earliest
Hteralure,-a great number oil places ara oO-
jects still retain the same appellations as in the
olden tines he Moreote can read The ancient
poet or historian with more Familiarity than an
Englishman can read even chaucer, much less
the Chronicles of the ancient Briton, or the
Saxon. The customs, modes of salutaton> SUI
persti,ions, sports of ancien, Greece, arc large
.iy retained in the interior and this strong SINH
larity authenticated in every colour Of national
mind and manners is found In the very spot
which was the known peculiar sea, of,he UNI
polluted and exclusive blood OF ancient Greece.
The conclusion is natural; the aetoal lineage
that once filed the earth with Its inteAeesual
splendour still exists, however limited; and
when once it shall have been delivered from Its
house Of bondage, from the grave, which has
had power only over its form, not over its spi-
rit, i.may stand forth in some still nobler stat
IRE of power and genius imperishable.
The geographical formation OF Greece gives