30 



CAUSES OF THE WEAKNESS AND DECLINE 



moral and social relations comprehended in the term, country. They 

 may be considered as presenting themselves to our notice under two 

 general classes ; the one, engaged in trade ; the other, including many 

 of the lower order of ecclesiastics, employed in the labours of agricul- 

 ture. The path of commerce is distinctly pointed out to them by 

 their situation under the Turkish empire ; it is their necessary em- 

 ployment, for the same reason that it became the occupation of the 

 Christians in the persecuting time of Diocletian, and is now that of 

 the Jews in every quarter of the globe. The Greeks can receive in 

 their present state no encouragement to direct their attention to ob- 

 jects of liberal pursuit ; the finer arts, the arts of sculpture, architec- 

 ture, eloquence, poetry, only flourish where a greater degree of liberty 

 is enjoyed, than they can obtain. There is no walk of honourable 

 ambition open to them. The very offices of trust and power which 

 they hold enable the Turks to wrest by their means more easily from 

 their oppressed subjects the fruits of their industry. The Greek 

 clergy may be better instructed, and become better qualified to dis- 

 charge the duties of their stations ; but the cupidity and rapacity of 

 the Porte* must be satisfied. The Turks will continue to expose the 

 high offices of the Greek church to sale ; and simony, and the arts of 

 low intrigue, will be the means of procuring those of an inferior de- 

 gree. Even if we should suppose that literature might be generally 

 diffused among the Greeks, we need not necessarily conclude that 

 they will attract the attention of the enlightened part of Europe by 

 their exertions in any branch of it. In the reigns of Vespasian and 

 Nero, learning was common in the Roman empire: but we meet 

 with no advancement or perfection of knowledge in those ages. In 



* " The sport which they make of the miserable dignities of the Greek church, the little 

 factions of the Harem to which they make them subservient, the continual sale to which 

 they expose and re-expose the same dignity, and by which they squeeze all the inferior 

 orders of the clergy, are nearly equal to all the other oppressions together, exercised by 

 Musulmeri over the unhappy members of the oriental church." Burke on the Penal Laws 

 against the Irish Catholics, p. 537. 



