210 Intelligence and Miscellanies. 



in general, and providing materials which will produce great 

 effect, when they are allowed to operate freely on the mass 

 of the people. I have but just begun to examine this sub- 

 ject, and so important and extensive do I find it, that if Prov- 

 idence permit, I shall return to complete observations and 

 inquiries which my state of health has scarcely allowed me 

 to commence until the present summer. I shall deem my- 

 self happy if I can, in this way, become a humble instrument 

 of promoting that moral elevation of character, that intel- 

 lectual light among the mass of the people, so necessary for 

 the security of institutions like ours, so little thought of as 

 a part of the business of education, and so little valued in 

 comparison with those mechanical acquisitions made in our 

 schools, which for want of proper direction are often only 

 the instruments of evil. I have come hither to pass the 

 winter in the examination of an institution, which for the ex- 

 tent and rationality of its means of education, is among the 

 first in Europe. 



The season is thus far very mild, and it is singular that at 

 the height of one thousand seven hundred feet above the 

 level of the sea, we have had scarcely any severe cold, while 

 in most of the adjacent countries the winter is long since set 

 in, and even in Turkey, the Russians have almost realized 

 the sufferings of the French at Moscow. 1 find that the most 

 liberal men here rather rejoice that the proud steps of the 

 northern colossus are somewhat arrested, and that Russian 

 despotism is kept at bay by the Mahomedan, to the greater 

 security of the rest of the world. The great objects which hu- 

 manity had to desire, the independence of Greece, and the 

 repose necessary to build up its ruins, and the better protec- 

 tion of Wallachia and Moldavia seem to be secured ; and if 

 the success of the Russians had been complete, who can an- 

 swer for the ambition of Nicolas, or the passions of his semi- 

 barbarous subjects ? You will probably have heard that the 

 ambassadors of the allied powers have been occupied with 

 the President in preparing to fix the boundaries of Greece, 

 which it can scarcely be hoped (if desired) will at present 

 be extended beyond the Isthmus. It is a striking evidence 

 of the deplorable state of this country, that at their meeting 

 at Poros, the best houses which could be found for them, 

 were destitute both of doors and windows. There is not 

 enough wealth remaining to replant the desolated vineyards 

 and olive yards. The price of two or three crops will pur- 

 chase the land. Candia is at present the scene of the same 



