FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   39   >>  
p sense of honour of the Turks, with the vivacity and, we regret to add, the deceit and bad faith of the unfortunate modern Greeks. The virtuous spirit will, we trust, revive in the Morea with the return of civilization and freedom; for, as no one will attribute the degradation of the modern Greeks from the high moral cultivation of their ancestors, to any alteration in the climate of their country, so let us never despair of the return of virtue, of poetry, of the arts and sciences, whilst Parnassus and Helicon still enjoy the same glorious sun, and whilst the Isles are still gilded by eternal summer. We want no proofs that patriotism still lives in Greece, and with that feeling will ever be associated the powers that are able to invigorate a nation. Although a mountainous country like Greece, situated in the loveliest climate in the world, must of course have some effect on the spirit of the people, yet the degree of it seems extremely uncertain. The Swiss seem in a great measure to have lost their renown for patriotism, by their slavish submissions to foreign yokes during the late war, and by the apathy with which they allow their rights to be trampled on at this day by a tyrannical aristocracy at home. There is now a proverb of "_Point d'argent, point de Suisse!_"--a melancholy reflection for a land where Tell drew his unerring shaft in the cause of freedom--where, so late as 1798, a patriot of the canton of Schwyz concluded an address with these words:--"The dew of the mountain may still moisten its verdure--the sweets of the valley may still shed their fragrance around you--the purple grape may still mingle with the green vine--the note of the maiden may still sound sweetly to the ear of her lover--the soft cry of the infant charm the feelings of the father--the confiding wife may yet gladden the home of her husband--but the heart of man will be rotten--the spirit of your ancestors extinguished--Switzerland no more, if you submit to the French. If you love your country, and value your honour, be men, and resist. If not, prove cowards, and obey." Patriotism, however, does not confine itself to mountains, as witness the history of the ancient and modern republics of Italy; of the resistance of Holland and Belgium to their oppressors; of the English and French revolutions. It is unnecessary to look across the Atlantic, to prove the existence of the pure plant in its most healthy and vigorous growth. The new world i
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   39   >>  



Top keywords:

modern

 
spirit
 

country

 
patriotism
 

ancestors

 

whilst

 
French
 

climate

 

freedom

 

Greeks


honour

 
return
 

Greece

 

mingle

 

sweetly

 

infant

 

maiden

 
moisten
 

canton

 

patriot


Schwyz

 

concluded

 

unerring

 

address

 

valley

 
fragrance
 
purple
 

sweets

 
verdure
 

mountain


oppressors
 

Belgium

 

English

 

revolutions

 
Holland
 

resistance

 

history

 

witness

 
ancient
 

republics


unnecessary

 
vigorous
 

healthy

 

growth

 

Atlantic

 
existence
 

mountains

 
rotten
 

extinguished

 

Switzerland