[ io6 ] 
materials for printing, but never could find, fince 
his father’s death, and during Sultan Mahmud’s 
reign, money to carry It on. The queftion is now, 
whether Sultan Ofman is not too fi;ri6t a muflulman 
to continue the permiffion. 
7. The progrefs of arts and fciences, and litera- 
ture, feems travelling on, gradatim^ to the wefiward, 
from iTgypt to Greece, from Greece to Rome, 
thence to the weft of Europe, and I fuppofe at laft 
to America. We find few traces in the eaft: the 
Greeks, who fhould be the depofitaries of them, are 
the fame Greeks they ever were. Homines contentionis 
cupidiores qiiam veritatis. They have retained all 
the vices, imperfections, ill habitudes, of their an- 
cefiors but have loft all their public fpirit, and 
public virtues. The clergy, who ftiould fupport the 
whole machine of learning, are themfelves the fource 
of ignorance ^ all their talents and acquifitions con- 
fift in bribing amongft the Turks, and folliciting to 
deftroy one patriarch in order to make another j to 
raife from a curacy to a biftioprick, and to exchange 
from an indifferent one to a better. They endea- 
vour to cultivate literal Greek, and fome ftudy it, 
but advance no further. There are neither gram- 
marians, critics, hifiorians, nor philofophers, among 
them ; nor have they proper preceptors or mafters to 
inftrucft. They have formed a fort of an academy 
at Mount Athos, for their youth, which will fcarce 
furvive the perfon who has undertaken it : he has 
himfelf but the mere elements of fcience. How- 
ever, his defire of knowing may improve him j and ’ 
he may perhaps lay the foundations in fome youth 
with fuccds.. 
The 
