"The vulgar dialect of the city was gross and barbarous, though the compositions of the church and palace sometimes affected to copy the purity of the Attic models." Whatever may be asserted on the subject, it is difficult to conceive that the "ladies of Constantinople," in the reign of the last Cæsar, spoke a purer dialect than Anna Comnena wrote three centuries before: and those royal pages are not esteemed the best models of composition, although the princess γλωτταν είχεν ΑΚΡΙΒΩΣ Αττικίζουσαν. In the Fanal, and in Yanina, the best Greek is spoken: in the latter there is a flourishing school under the direction of Psalida. There is now in Athens a pupil of Psalida's, who is making a tour of observation through Greece: he is intelligent, and better educated than a fellow-commoner of most colleges. I mention this as a proof that the spirit of inquiry is not dormant amongst the Greeks. The Reviewer mentions Mr. Wright, the author of the beautiful poem "Hora Ionicæ," as qualified to give details of these nominal Romans and degenerate Greeks, and also of their language: but Mr. Wright, though a good poet and an able man, has made a mistake where he states the Albanian dialect of the Romaic to approximate nearest to the Hellenic: for the Albanians speak a Romaic as notoriously corrupt as the Scotch of Aberdeenshire, or the Italian of Naples. Yanina (where, next to the Fanal, the Greek is purest) although the capital of Ali Pacha's dominions, is not in Albania but Epirus: and beyond Delvinachi in Albania Proper up to Argyrocastro and Tepaleni (beyond which I did not advance) they speak worse Greek than even the Athenians. I was attended for a year and a half by two of these singular mountaineers, whose mothertongue is Illyric, and never heard them or their countrymen (whom I have seen, not only at home, but to the amount of twenty thousand in the army of Vely Pacha) praised for their Greek, but often laughed at for their provincial barbarisms. the fault is in the man rather than in his mother tongue, which is, as it ought to be, of the great est aid to the native student.-Here the Reviewer proceeds to business on Strabo's translators, and here I close my remarks. Sir W. Drummond, Mr. Hamilton, Lord Aberdeen, Dr. Clarke, Captain Leake, Mr. Gell, Mr. Walpole, and many others now in England, have all the requisites to furnish details of this fallen people. The few observations I have offered 1 should have left where I made them, bad the article in question, and above all the put where I read it, induced me to advert to the pages which the advantage of my present it the attempt. tion enabled me to clear, or at least to mir I have endeavoured to wave the personal ings, which rise in despite of me in touc upon any part of the Edinburgh Review from a wish to conciliate the favour of its v ters, or to cancel the remembrance of a sylabk I have formerly published, but simply fres à sense of the impropriety of mixing up priv resentments with a disquisition of the presen kind, and more particularly at this distance of time and place. IV. The difficulties of travelling in Turkey bare been much exaggerated, or rather have consider ably diminished of late years. The Mass mans have been beaten into a kind of sim civility, very comfortable to voyagers. It is hazardous to say much on the subject f Turks and Turkey; since it is possible to Eve amongst them twenty years without acquir information, at least from themselves. As tar as my own slight experience carried me I ha no complaint to make; but am indebted t many civilities (I might almost say for fre ship), and much hospitality, to Ali Pacha. son Veli Pacha of the Morea, and several hen of high rank in the provinces. Suleyman Ara late Governor of Athens, and now of The was a bon vivant, and as social a being s I have in my possession about twenty-five letever sat cross legged at a tray or a table. Du ters, amongst which some from the Bey of Co-ing the carnival, when our English party wer rinth, written to me by Notaras, the Cogia Bachi, masquerading, both himself and his succe and others by the dragoman of the Caimacan were more happy to "receive masks" than y of the Morea (which last governs in Vely Pacha's dowager in Grosvenor-square. absence) which are said to be favourable specimens of their epistolary style. I also received some at Constantinople from private persons, written in a most hyperbolical style, but in the true antique character. The Reviewer proceeds, after some remarks on the tongue in its past and present state, to a paradox (page 59) on the great mischief the knowledge of his own language has done to Coray, who, it seems, is less likely to understand the ancient Greek, because he is perfect master of the modern! This observation follows a paragraph, recommending, in explicit terms, the study of the Romaic, as "a powerful auxiliary,“ not only to the traveller and foreign merchant, but also to the classical scholar; in short, to every body except the only person who can be thoroughly acquainted with its uses: and by a parity of reasoning, our old language is conjectured to be probably more attainable by foreigners than by ourselves! Now I am inclined to think, that a Dutch tyro in our tongue (albeit himself of Saxon blood) would be sadly perplexed with "Sir Tristrem," or any other given Auchinlech MS." with or without a grammar or glossary; and to most apprehensions it seems evident, that none but a native can acquire a competent, far less complete, knowledge of our obsolete idioms. We may give the critic credit for his ingenuity, but no more believe him than we do Smollet's Lismahago, who maintains that the purest English is spoken in Edinburgh. That Coray may orr is very possible; but if he does, On one occasion of his supping at the convent his friend and visitor, the Cadi of Thebes, carried from table perfectly qualified for any club in Christendom; while the worthy Way wode himself triumphed in his fall. In all money-transactions with the Meslems 1 ever found the strictest honour, the highest da interestedness. In transacting business with them, there are none of those dirty peculati under the name of interest, difference of e change, commission, uniformly found in apa to a Greek consul to cash bills, even on the tr houses in Pera. With regard to presents, an established es tom in the East, you will rarely find yourse loser; as one worth acceptance is generally e turned by another of similar value-a horse, a shawl. In the capital and at court the citizens courtiers are formed in the same school those of Christianity; but there does not a more honourable, friendly, and high spirited character than the true Turkish provincial A or Moslem country-gentleman. It is not c here to designate the governors of towns, b those Agas who, by a kind of feudal tes possess lands and houses, of more or less extrat, in Greece and Asia Minor. The lower orders are in as tolerable disciplist as the rabble in countries with greater pretes sions to civilization. A Moslem, in walking the streets of our country-towns, would be more t commoded in England than Frank in a mulat sation in Turkey. Regimentals are the best The best accounts of the religion, and differ- find so few publications on general subjects than that we find any at all. The whole number of the Grecks, scattered up and down the Turkish empire and elsewhere, may amount, at most, to three millions; and yet, for so scanty a number, it is impossible to discover any nation with 80 great a proportion of books and their authors, as the Greeks of the present century. "Ay," but say the generous advocates of oppression, who, while they assert the ignorance of the Greeks, wish to prevent them from dispelling it, "ay, but these are mostly, if not all, ecclesiastical tracts, and consequently good for nothing." Well! and pray what else can they write about? It is pleasant enough to hear a Frank, particularly an Englishman, who may abuse the government of his own country; or a Frenchman, who may abuse every government except his own, and who may range at will over every philosophical, religious, scientific, sceptical, or moral subject, sneering at the Greek legends. A Greek must not write on politics, and cannot touch on science for want of instruction; if he doubts, he is excommunicated and damned; therefore his countrymen are not poisoned with modern philosophy; and as to morals, thanks to the Turks! there are no such things. What then is left him, if he has a turn for scribbling? Religion and holy biography: and it is natural enough that those who have so little in this life should look to the next. It is no great wonder then that in a catalogue now before me of fifty-five I remember Mahmout, the grandson of Ali Greek writers, many of whom were lately living, cha, asking whether my fellow-traveller and not above fifteen should have touched on any self were in the upper or lower House of thing but religion. The catalogue alluded to is trliament. Now this question from a boy of contained in the twenty-sixth chapter of the years old proved that his education had not fourth volume of Meletius's Ecclesiastical History. en neglected. It may be doubted if an Eng-I have in MS. a long dramatic satire on the h boy at that age knows the difference of the Greek priesthood, princes, and gentry. The com(van from a College of Dervises; but I am mencement is, as follows: ry sure a Spaniard does not. How little Mahout, surrounded, as he has been, entirely by s Turkish tutors, had learned that there was ch a thing as a Parliament it were useless to njecture, unless we suppose that his instruct8 did not confine his studies to the Koran. In all the mosques there are schools established, hich are very regularly attended; and the or are taught without the church of Turkey ing put into peril. I believe the system is ot yet printed (though there is such a thing as Turkish press, and books printed on the late ilitary institution of the Nizam Gelidd); nor ave I heard whether the Mufti and the Mollas ave subscribed, or the Caimacan and the Tefrdar taken the alarm, for fear the ingenuous outh of the turban should be taught not to pray to God their way." The Greeks also-a ind of Eastern Irish papists-have a college of heir own at Maynooth-no, at Haivali, where he heterodox receive much the same kind of ountenance from the Ottoman as the Catholic ollege from the English legislature. Who shall hen affirm, that the Turks are ignorant bigots, Then they thus evince the exact proportion of hristian charity which is tolerated in the most rosperous and orthodox of all possible kingtoms? But, though they allow all this, they will 1ot suffer the Greeks to participate in their priileges: no, let them fight their battles, and pay their haratch (taxes), be drubbed in this world, and damned in the next. And shall we then emancipate our Irish Helots? Mahomet forbid! We should then be bad Mussulmans, and worse Christians; at present we unite the best of both-jesuitical faith, and something not much inferior to Tarkish toleration. V. Amongst an enslaved people, obliged to have recourse to foreign presses even for their books of religion, it is less to be wondered at that we TRANSLATION. A Russian, Englishman, and Frenchman making maid? The descendants of Hellas's race are not ye! To vilely exist as the Mussulman slave! Not such was your land in her earlier hour, The reply of the Philellenist I have not trans- NOTES TO CANTO III. In "pride of place" here last the eagle flew. [p. 26. St. 18. "Pride of place" is a term of falconry, and means the highest pitch of flight.-See Macbeth: An Eagle towering in his pride of place Was by a mousing Owl hawked at and killed. Such as Harmodius drew on Athens' tyrant lord. (p. 26. St. 20. See the famous Song on Harmodius and Aristogiton. The best English translation is in Bland's Anthology, by. Mr. Denman. "With myrtle my sword will I wreathe." And all went merry as a marriage-bell. [p. 26. St. 21. On the night previous to the action, it is said that a ball was given at Brussels. For sceptred cynics earth were far too wide a de [p. 28. St. 4 The great error of Napoleon, "if we have writ our annals true," was a continued obtro on mankind of his want of all community of fres ing for or with them; perhaps more offerin to human vanity than the active cruelty of men trembling and suspicious tyranny. Such were his speeches to public assentis as well as individuals: and the single expressin which he is said to have used on returns Paris after the Russian winter had destro his army, rubbing his hands over a fire. is pleasanter than Moscow," would pr alienate more favour from his cause the destruction and reverses which led to the rent What want these outlaws conquerors should imm) (p. 23. && "What wants that knave That a king should have?" was King James's question on meeting Joh Armstrong and his followers in full accouze And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clans-ments-See the Ballad. [p. 26. St. 26. Sir Evan Cameron, and his descendant Donald, the "gentle Lochiel of the "forty-five." man's ear8. And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves. [p. 26. St. 27. The wood of Soignies is supposed to be a remnant of the "forest of Ardennes," famous in Boiardo's Orlande,and immortal in Shakspeare's "As you like it." It is also celebrated in Tacitus as being the spot of successful defence by the Germans against the Roman encroachments.I have ventured to adopt the name connected with nobler associations than those of mere slaughter. I turn'd from all she brought to those she could not bring. [p. 27. St. 30. My guide from Mont St. Jean over the field seemed intelligent and accurate. The place where Major Howard fell was not far from two tall and solitary trees (there was a third cut down, or shivered in the battle) which stand a few yards from each other at a pathway's side.Beneath these he died and was buried. The body has since been removed to England. A small hollow for the present marks where it lay; but will probably soon be effaced; the plough has been upon it, and the grain is. After pointing out the different spots where Picton and other gallant men had perished; the guide said, "here Major Howard lay; I was near him when wounded." I told him my relationship, and he seemed then still more anxious to point out the particular spot and circumstances. The place is one of the most marked in the field from the peculiarity of the two trees above mentioned. I went on horseback twice over the field, comparing it with my recollection of similar scenes. As a plain, Waterloo seems marked out for the scene of some great action, though this may be mere imagination. I have viewed with attention those of Platæa, Troy, Mantinea, Leuctra, Cha ronea, and Marathon; and the field around Mont St. Jean and Hougoumont appears to want little but a better cause, and that undefinable but impressive halo which the lapse of ages throws around a celebrated spot, to vie in interest with any or all of these, except perhaps the last mentioned. Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore. [p. 27. St. 34. The fabled apples on the brink of the lake Asphaltes were said to be fair without, and within ashes.-Vide Tacitus, Histor. I, 5. 7. The castled crag of Drachenfels, [p. 29. St. The castle of Drachenfels stands on the bo summit of "the Seven Mountains," over > Rhine banks; it is in ruins, and connected vá some singular traditions: it is the first in w of the river; on this bank, nearly facing it, an on the road from Bonn, but on the opposite sie the remains of another called the Jew's castit of a chief by his brother: the number of castin and a large cross commemorative of the marr and cities along the course of the Rhine on a sides is very great, and their situations remai ably beautiful. The whiteness of his soul, and thus men d'ơn wept. [p. 30. St. St The monument of the young and la General Marceau (killed by a rifle-ball at A kirchen on the last day of the fourth year of the French republic) still remains as described The inscriptions on his monument are re too long, and not required: his name was en France adored, and her enemies admired. wept over him.-His funeral was attended by the generals and detachments from both aris In the same grave general Hoche is interred a gallant man also in every sense of the word, though he distinguished himself greatly in ba he had not the good fortune to die there death was attended by suspicions of poison. A separate monument (not over his body, which is buried by Marceau's) is raised for him t Andernach, opposite to which one of his memorable exploits was performed, in throw a a bridge to an island on the Rhine. The and style are different from that of Marec and the inscription more simple and pleasing: "The Army of the Sambre and Mease This is all, and as it should be. Hoche wa esteemed among the first of France's ear generals before Buonaparte monopolized her triumphs. He was the destined commander the invading army of Ireland. Here Ehrenbreitstein, with her shatter'd wal [p. 30. St. 2 Ehrenbreitstein, i. e. "the broad Stone of Her oar," one of the strongest fortresses in Eur was dismantled and blown up by the French the truce of Leoben.-It had been and could be reduced by famine or treachery. It vician to the former, aided by surprise. After havi seen the fortifications of Gibraltar and Ma it did not much strike by comparison, but the eftnation is commanding. General Marceau besieged it in vain for some time, and I slept in a room where I was shown a window at which he is said to have been standing observing the progress of the siege by moonlight, when a ball struck immediately below it. Unsepulchred they roam'd, and shriek'd each Levell'd Aventicum hath strew'd her subject lands. Julia Alpinula Hic jaceo, I know of no human composition so affecting as this, nor a history of deeper interest. These are the names and actions which ought not to perish, and to which we turn with a true and healthy tenderness, from the wretched and glittering detail of a confused mass of conquests and battles, with which the mind is roused for a time to a false and feverish sympathy, from whence it recurs at length with all the nausea consequent on such intoxication. In the sun's face, like yonder Alpine snow. [p. 31. St. 67. This is written in the eye of Mont Blanc (June 3d, 1816) which even at this distance daz zles mine. (July 20th.) I this day observed for some time the distinct reflection of Mont Blanc and Mont Argentière in the calm of the lake, which I was crossing in my boat; the distance of these mountains from their mirror is 60 miles. By the blue rushing of the arrowy Rhone. The colour of the Rhone at Geneva is blue, to (p. 31. St. 71. a depth of tint which I have never seen equalled in water, salt or fresh, except in the Mediterranean and Archipelago. possest. Than vulgar minds may be with all they seek This refers to the account in his "Confessions" [p. 32. Št. 79. of his passion for the Comtesse d'Houdetot (the mistress of St. Lambert) and his long walk every morning for the sake of the single kiss whic was the common salutation of French acquaint- Of earth-o'ergazing mountains. and impressive doctrines of the divine Founder human eloquence, the most effectual and splendid Were the early and rapid progress of what is called Methodism to be attributed to any cause faith and doctrines (the truth or error of which beyond the enthusiasm excited by its vehement should venture to ascribe it to the practice of I presume neither to canvas nor to question) I preaching in the fields, and the unstudied and extemporaneous effusions of its teachers. The Mussulmans, whose erroneous devotion (at least in the lower orders) is most sincere, and therefore impressive, are accustomed to repeat their prescribed orisons and prayers whereever they may be at the stated hours-of course frequently in the open air, kneeling upon a light mat (which they carry for the purpose of a bed or cushion as required); the ceremony lasts some minutes, during which they are totally absorbed, can disturb them. and only living in their supplication; nothing sincerity of these men, and the spirit which On me the simple and entire appeared to be within and upon them, made a far greater impression than any general rite which was ever performed in places of worship, of which I have seen those of almost every persuasion under the sun; including most of our own sectaries, and the Greek, the Catholic, the Armenian, the Lutheran, the Jewish, and the Mahometan. Many of the negroes, of whom there are numbers in the Turkish empire, are idolaters, and have free exercise of their belief and its rites: some of these I had a distant view of at Patras, and from what I could make out of them, they appeared to be of a truly Pagan description, and not very agreeable to a spectator. The sky is changed !—and such a change! Oh night. [p. 33. St. 92. The thunder-storms to which these lines refer occurred on the 13th of June, 1816, at midnight. I have seen among the Acroceraunian mountains of Chimari several more terrible, but none more beautiful. And sun-set into rose-hues sees them wrought. Rousseau's Heloise, Letter 17, part 4, note.heure après le soleil couché leurs sommets sont "Ces montagnes sont si hautes, qu'une demiforme sur ces cimes blanches une belle couleur encore éclairés de ses rayons, dont le rouge de rose qu'on apperçoit de fort loin." This applies more particularly to the heights over Meillerie. [p. 36. St. -"If it be thus, SHAKSP. Macbeth "J'allai à Vevay loger à la Clef, et pendant Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued deux jours que j'y restai sans voir personne je pris pour cette ville un amour qui m'a suivi dans tous mes voyages, et qui m'y a fait établir For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind." enfin les héros de mon roman. Je dirois volontiers à ceux qui ont du goût et qui sont sensibles allez à Vevay-visitez le pays, examinez les sites, promenez-vous sur le lac, et dites si la Nature n'a pas fait ce beau pays pour une Julie, pour une Claire et pour un St. Preux; mais ne les y cherchez pas." Les Confessions, livre IV. In July, 1816, I made a voyage round the Lake of Geneva; and, as far as my own observations have led me in a not uninterested nor inattentive survey of all the scenes most celebrated by Rousseau in his "Heloise," I can safely say, that in this there is no exaggeration. It would be difficult to see Clarens (with the scenes around it, Vevay, Chillon, Boveret, St. Gingo, Meillerie, Evian, and the entrances of the Rhone), without being forcibly struck with its peculiar adaptation to the persons and events with which it has been peopled. But this is not all; the feeling with which all around Clarens and the opposite rocks of Meillerie is invested is of a still higher and more comprehensive order than the mere sympathy with individual passion; it is a sense of the existence of love in its most extended and sublime capacity, and of our own participation of its good and of its glory: it is the great principle of the universe, which is there more condensed, but not less manifested; and of which, though knowing ourselves a part, we lose our individuality, and mingle in the beauty of the whole. If Rousseau had never written, nor lived, the same associations would not less have belonged to such scenes. He has added to the interest of his works by their adoption; he has shown his sense of their beauty by the selection; but they have done that for him which no human being could do for them. O'er others' griefs that some sincerely griev [p. 36. St. 14 It is said by Rochefoucault that "there always something in the misfortunes of eit best friends not displeasing to them." NOTES TO CANTO IV I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sigh [p. 28. $1 The communication between the Ducal plan and the prisons of Venice is by a gloomy brie or covered gallery, high above the water, ad divided by a stone-wall into a passage and cell. The state-dungeons, called "pez" @ wells, were sunk in the thick walls of the lace; and the prisoner when taken out e side, and being then led back into the t was conducted across the gallery to the compartment, or cell, upon the bridge, was strangled. The low portal through which criminal was taken into this cell is now wal up; but the passage is still open, and is known by the name of the Bridge of Sighs Th pozzi are under the flooring of the chamber a the foot of the bridge. They were former twelve, but on the first arrival of the Frend the Venetians hastily blocked or broke up the deeper of these dungeons. You may still. bee ver, descend by a trap-door, and crawl d through holes, half choked by rubbish, depth of two stories below the first range ་ of patrician power, perhaps you may find it them. you are in want of consolation for the exti scarcely a ray of light glimmers into the ar gallery which leads to the cells, and the plac of confinement themselves are totally dark small hole in the wall admitted the damp ar the passages, and served for the introducti I had the fortune (good or evil as it might be) to sail from Meillerie (where we landed for some time) to St. Gingo during a lake storm, which added to the magnificence of all around, although occasionally accompanied by danger to the boat, which was small and overloaded. It was over this very part of the lake that Rous-the prisoner's food. seau has driven the boat of St. Preux and Madame Wolmar to Meillerie for shelter during a tempest. On gaining the shore at St. Gingo, we found that the wind had been sufficiently strong to blow down some fine old chesnut-trees on the lower part of the mountains. On the opposite height is a seat called the Chateau de Clarens. The hills are covered with vineyards, and interspersed with some small but beautiful woods; one of these was named the "Bosquet de Julie," and it is remarkable that, though long ago cut down by the brutal selfishness of the monks of St. Bernard (to whom the land appertained), that the ground might be inclosed into a vineyard for the miserable drones of an execrable superstition, the inhabitants of Clarens still point out the spot where its trees stood, calling it by the name which consecrated and survived them. Rousseau has not been particularly fortunate in the preservation of the "local habitations" he has given to "airy nothings." The Prior of Great St. Bernard has cut down some of his woods for the sake of a few casks of wine, and Buonaparte has levelled part of the rocks of Meillerie in improving the road to the Simplon. The road is an excellent one, but I cannot quite agree with a remark which I heard made, that "La route vaut mieux que les souvenirs." Lausanne! and Ferney! ye have been the abodes. [p. 35. St. 105. Voltaire and Gibbon. foot from the ground, was the only fer solitude. As nearly as they could be copied di more than one pencil, three of them are follows: 1. NON TI FIDAR AD ALCUNO PENSA E TACI MA BEN DI VALOR TUO LA VERA PROVA 1607. ADI 2. GENARO FUI RETENTO PLA BESTIEMMA P' AVER BATO BA MANZAR A UN MORTO IACOMO. GRITTI, SCR 1968 |