A EIDE TO MAGNESIA. 105 



classes are concerned. At present the mixture only 

 savours strongly of the Gallic ingredient. And a 

 most agreeable mixture it makes, affording the blended 

 essences of many nations. Few who have seen much 

 of that society can entertain its reflection without 

 pleasure; and all are wise to make the most of its 

 image, as the wide world affords no twin establish- 

 ment. Coming from many parts of Europe, the 

 colonists have, by the influences of climate and asso- 

 ciation, been blended into a general assimilation of 

 character, yet retaining the one or two salient points 

 of nationality. Their physiognomies express the wild 

 influences of Ionia ; and it would be vain to seek in 

 their native countries such beautiful specimens of 

 French or Italian women (I except Englishwomen) 

 as are to be found in this birthplace of poetry. It 

 is a city of wonderful linguists, for the necessities of 

 intercourse demand at least three, and in many cases 

 four, languages Greek with the servants, Italian 

 with the shopkeepers, and French among the polished. 

 Many of them possess more than this number, and 

 truly wonderful it is to see them turn from one guest 

 to another in their pleasant assemblies, and to each 

 address the tongue of his proper country. The same 

 causes that loosened the vowels and softened the 

 utterance of the old Greek in Ionia, have dipped in 

 honey the tongues of the modern Levantines ; and 

 whatever they be speaking it is always mellifluously. 

 It is no less true that the old grace of these shores 



