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is true, that, in the miserable devastation which ensued, 

 many noble cities were overthrown ; many admirable works 

 and monuments of antiquity Avere destroyed: but, on the 

 whole, perhaps, society and the arts did not lose so much 

 as is generally imagined; nor was the human race so much 

 changed, for the worse, as we are too ready to allow. Let 

 any person impartially read over the history of the latter 

 ages of the Greek empire, and he will be obliged to con- 

 fess, that the total extermination of such a degenerate and 

 unworthy race, could not have been a subject of much just 

 regret, or any great loss to the civilization and virtue of 

 mankind. That vast and hateful capital, Constantinople, 

 then was, and so it remains, a sink of abomination. The 

 bloody intrigues, the relentless vengeance, the cruel punish- 

 ments, the all-powerful sway of women and eunuchs, the 

 unbridled domination of ignorance, fear, folly, avarice, lust, 

 incapacity, and blindness, were just as great then, as they 

 are at the present hour. Had not the human race, whose 

 enormities were fully ripe for such a tremendous chastise- 

 ment, been then overwhelmed by wariike barbarians, it is 

 probable, that their own unmanly vices and degeneracy 

 would ultimately have exterminated them, and depopu- 

 lated the country; or, at least, plunged them in a degree 

 of ignorance and blindness, equal to that which prevailed 

 among their conquerors in the dark middle ages. Let the 

 reader consult Gibbon, an historian Avorthy of the period 

 he has chosen for his theme, with respect to the astonish- 

 ing depravity and turpitude of the times. Any person, 

 VOL. X. K who 



