Modern Greece, Two Lectures, with Papers on 'The Progress of Greece' and 'Byron in Greece'.

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1880. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... The privilege of addressing an audience at the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh on such a subject as Modern Greece imposes an obligation which must be obeyed at the outset--that of defining the ground which it is proposed to traverse. My lecture this evening will attempt to trace in outline the stoiy of the Greek nation from the time of Alexander the Great to our own. In a second lecture on Friday next I shall endeavour to give some of the impressions derived from a recent visit to Greece. The central fact of all Greek history, from the The Greek Nationality. earliest age down to the present day, is the unbroken life of the Greek nationality. Here, after all, is the great contrast between the destiny of Italy and of Greece. The principles of Roman law have survived the Roman type of character and mind. Greece, the A first seat of European politics, has left us no direct political inheritance, but has perpetuated the intellectual and moral stamp of Hellenic society in a national character of marked distinction, its two The national unity of the ancient Hellenes rested phases. * not merely on common language and common institutions, but also on common blood. All Hellenes regarded themselves as scions of one stock. A new kind of Hellenic nationality sprang from the Asiatic conquests of Alexander the Great. Alexander founded cities which were Greek in civilization, but of which the population was partly Greek, partly Macedonian, partly Asiatic. Henceforth there are two types of Greek--the Greek of Europe and the Greek of Asia. The Greek of Europe--dwelling chiefly in Greece Proper and the islands--still claimed pure Hellenic blood, and retained in some measure the nobler qualities of the ancient race. The Greek of Asia was usually of mixed blood, and in him th...