4SC Sketch of the present State of Greece and Palestine. [Dec. 1 , 
which leaves no scope for the pleasures 
of inejoory. The xMorea is almost a 
tlesett. Since the Russian war, the yoke 
of (he Turks lias become more gahing to 
its inhabitants, and the Albanians have 
butchered a part of the population.—■ 
Villages laid waste by tire and sword 
present themselves in every direction, 
and in ilie cities, as at Mistra for instance; 
entire subuibs are aband >ned. Ve'ofren 
travelled tiiteen leagues in the country 
without encountering a single habitation. 
The most grinding oppression that ty¬ 
ranny can exercise,—outrages and de¬ 
predations of every description, are now 
consummating the ruin of agriculture and 
extinguishing the race of man intlieland 
of Leonidas. To expel a Greek peasant 
fram his hut,—to seize upon his wife 
and children,—to massacre them upon 
the slightest pretext*-—are but the amuse- 
jnents of the most insignificant aga of 
the smallest village. The native of the 
Morea, reduced to tiie last degree of 
misery, tears himself from his country, 
and seeks a lot somewhat less cruel in 
Asia; but there again his untoward des¬ 
tiny pursues him, and he finds cadis and 
pachas even among the sands of the Jor¬ 
dan and the deserts of Palm'ra. 
We are not amoisg those intrepid ad¬ 
mirers of' antiquity, to whom a line of 
Homer yields consolation for all the evils 
of life. We never could understand the 
sentiment of Lucretius, 
Suave, mari inagno turbantibus 2Dqu©ra 
VCIltis, 
E terra magnum alterius spectare I.ibo- 
rem.” 
So far from loving to contemplate the 
struggles of wretchedness, we sutler when 
we see others suiter. The iMuses have 
then noother influence upon us than that 
vviiich results from compassion for the 
linfortnnate. Goil forbiil that we should 
now indtdge in tlujse declamations about 
liberty and slavery w hich have been the 
source of so many ills to our country. 
But if we had ever believed, concur¬ 
rently with men whose worth and talents 
we highly respect, that despotism was 
the best of all possible governments, the 
reiidence of a few months in Turkey 
would have completely cured us of this 
opinion. 
The monuments of art suffer no less 
than the rights of ruan frf)m the ferocity 
of the Turk. A heavy J'artar now inha, 
bits the citadel of Athens—fllled as it is 
wit'i the masterpieces of Ictinus and Phi¬ 
dias—without deigning to inquire what 
people it was that left those lemaias 
without condescending to quit for a mo¬ 
ment the habitation which he has con¬ 
structed under tlie ruins of the mo¬ 
numents of Pericles. Sometimes the 
sluggish 'tyrant drags himself to t!ie 
nioutfi ot hisden; and, there seated cross- 
legged on a loathsome and tattered car¬ 
pet, turns a vacant eye upon the shores 
of Salamis and the sea of Epidaurus, 
while the smoke of his pipe ascends 
among the columns of the temple of IMi- 
nerva,’^ 
** Coward Sloth, 
Sitting in silence, with dejected eyes 
Incurious, and with folded hands.'” 
''Ve can scarcely describe the variotis 
emotions by wiiich we were agitated, 
when, in the middle of the first night 
that, we passed at Athens, we were sud¬ 
denly roused by the discordant notes of 
the tambourin and the Turkish pipe 
sounding, from the ruins qf the PropylaM 
at the same time that a priest 
proclaimed, in Arabic, the passing iiour, 
lO the Christian Greeks of the city of 
IViinerva. It vvas not neocssary for tlie 
dervise to announce to us the flight of 
time: his voice alone when raised in that 
spot was sutiicient to remind us that ages 
had sione by. 
TIjis instability of human aflairs is the 
more striking for a traveller, as it is con¬ 
trasted with the constancy of the rest of 
nature : even the suburdinate creation, 
ill derision nS it were of our revolutions, 
experience no vicissitudes in their fit> 
minion, nor cliange in their habits. We 
were made to remark on the day after 
our arrival at Athens a flock of storks 
that motmied in the a:r,—then formed 
themselves into a line, and directed their 
flight towards Alrica. From the reigis 
of Cecrops down to tlie piesent time 
these birds have annually performed the 
same pilgrimage, and returnci! to the 
same spot. But how* often have they 
found in tears the host whom they 
left happy and joyous.'—How often hare 
they sought in vain not only their host, 
but the roof in wliicli they were accus¬ 
tomed to build tl>cir nests. Tlie wboie 
route from Athens to Jerustdem oflbrs ix 
most distressing picture to the eye of a 
traveller. E^typt exhibits a spectacle 
than which nothing can be imagined more 
liorribly disgusting. It is there that we 
^ The cost of this edifice was two thou¬ 
sand talents or about three hundred and sixty 
thousand pounds sterling. See Gilli.es’ His¬ 
tory of Greece aod Srewart’s Ai liens for a 
description of this noble nionuinenl. 
,gu\y 
