) 



The Blood of the Nation 



righteous, its effects are most forlorn. 

 The final effect of each strife for em- 

 pire has been the degradation or extinc- 

 tion of the nation which led in the 

 ^ struggle. 



Greece died because the men who 

 made her glory had passed away and 

 left few of their kin and therefore 

 few of their kind. " 'Tis Greece, but 

 living Greece no more "; for the Greek 

 of to-day, for the most part, never 

 came from the loins of Leonidas or 

 Miltiades. He is the son of the 

 stable-boys and scullions and slaves of 

 the day of her glory, those of whom 

 imperial Greece could make no use in 

 her conquest of Asia. " Most of the old 

 Greek race/' says Mr. W. H. Ireland, 

 " has been swept away, and the country 

 is now inhabited by persons of Sla- 

 vonic descent. Indeed, there is strong 

 ground for the statement that there 

 was more of the old heroic blood of 



50 



