Smyrna times., 1897-03-31
THE GREECE OF TO-DAY.
Professor BIackie's Tribute to the Descend.
ants of the Ancient Greeks. OF Inter-
est at this Time.
Boston Euenina Transcript.

ACdIn W SPEAK anu 10 E6du mOu6ru
Greek! This is the essence, the gist
of the articles on modern Greece which
was the last form the pen of the be-
loved Blackie of Edinburgh. 1t ap-
pears in the current Forum at timely
moment. The hearty Scotsman who
so much loved Greece speaks there
with all the human warmth of his life
long enthusiasm. And it starts the
Hellenic pulse beating in the reading
realize simply that ''the Greece of to-
day is the only living bridge between
the past and present of European his
tory"
But even scholars miss the full value
of the modern world in Greece by
their lack of knowledge of the Ian
guage. ''TO talk of Greek as a dead
language, says Professor Blackie, sis
to show an ignorance of the historical
facts of Western Asia and Southeastern
Europe, of which men pretending to
culture should be ashamed. How
could Greek ever die during the thous-
and years of the Bzantine Empire,
when, from Constant downward. it had
driven Latin from its throne and as
serted its existence not only in a CON
tinuous stream of literary authority
in church and state, but in the daily
intercourse of all educated persons
from Cyprus to Crete, and from Crete
to Corfu. To any occupation
of the linguistic ground of literary
Greece by the language of the Turks,
the Greek mind was as much opposed as
It's Christian conscience was to the creed
OF Mohammed. So that from the time
of the council of Florence, in the
fifteenth century, down to COray, at
the date of the French revolution.
through Tricoupis, Paparegopoulous,
and Rangabe to Bikellas and Polylas
and ROides, in our own times. we have
an uninterrupted flow of living Greek.
Those being the facts that stare even
the superficial observer in the face.
what possible reason, 1 ask, can there
be for throwing an artificial hindrance
in the way of our converse with this
noble, self-sustaining people by treat
ing their language in a purely bookish
fashion, as if it were Syriac or Aramaie?
Sixty years ago Athens lay in ruins,
to-day, as Professor Blackie in true
Scottish fashion says, it is cas- large as
Aberdeen. :" A local comparison might
be that Athens has approximately
about the population of Providence.
Professor Blackie describes some of
the reasons why, although Greece
forms the living bridge between an
cient and modern history, she has not
yet received the recognition from the
intelligent which she so eminently de-
serves. The fear of Russia, the threat
of England's commercial movements
in the Mediterranean and to her i'm
portal influence in the East, has been
moving cause for that view of the Helle-
mic question which has said practically:
"Let Greece perish, but let Turkey
stand and hold the keys of Constanti-
nople against the every -watchful burg
lars of the North.
The difficulty of travelling to Greece
has been another reason for western
lack of knowledge. Switzerland is
more accessible, if not more attractive;
but Greece has now her thousand miles
of railway, and ''the most dainty
tourist will understand how easy it is
to jump into the train at Patras, and
after an hour or two's rattle land at
Olympia, the great centre of Greek
sympathies and of Greek art.
This has been done so readily since
the contestants went to Greece for the
Olympian games that all the world
recognizes now the ease of travel to
the land of LeOnidas. OF the rise of
Athens Professor Blackie says that it
grew out of the patriotism of expat-
rated Greeks, waiting and working for
the hour of national regeneration.
such and so numerous was the class
of Greeks outside of Greece bodily.
but intensely beating with the warm
pulses of patriOtism-who from the
moment of the publicly recognized in
dependence of the fatherland looked to
the ruins of Athens as the natural soil
into which their liberal patriotism was
to cast the seed of swift resurrection.
Forthwith funds were supplied with
which schools and colleges, museums
and benevolent associations of all
kinds were set in motion. So in the
course of half century rotten old
Turkish village rose into a position of
honorable rivalry with the fairest cities
OF Western Europe. The beauty and
significance of Athens, the increase Of
the production of corn, currants, wine,
and olives, but above all the increasing
commerce of Greece is set forth. Up
to the date of Professor Blackies writ
ing, just before his death in 1894,
Greece had more than thirty years of
comparatively fair sailing after King
George was given the throne. She is
now in troublous waters, but her living
speech is vital guaranty of her COM
ing to the haven where she would be-
of independence and recognized power.
And of this modern Greek speech as
of the Greek spirit, Professor Blackie
warns students not to doubt "The
few slight changes which differentiate
the Greek of living Greek writers from
the so-called classical Greek of the
ancients are merely as the looping off
of few superfuous branches from a
tree of exuberant growth-a loss amply
compensated by the daily addition of
fresh branches from its own native
reot, procedure diametrically op-
posed to the sewing together in a crude
style of borrowed scraps and patches
so characteristic of our English tongue.
Lastly, let the young Hellenist who
wishes to shake hands and hearts in a
kindly human and noble Christian
style with the living Greeks of to-day
know by practice that living speech
and not dead grammar is the oracle
from which he must learn. The living
alliance of mind and ear and sneecb