failed altogether from the troubles
of the times. The Emperor John Cantacuzene, who celebrated his own acts
in an edict beginning with the words 'by my sublime and almost
incredible virtue,' gave up the reins of power, and taking the name of
Josaph, became a monk of one of the monasteries of the holy mountain,
which was then known by the name of the monastery of Mangane, while the
monk Barlaam was created Bishop of Gerace, in Italy."

By the time the good abbot had come to the conclusion of his history,
the fish was cold and the dinner spoilt; but I thought his account of
the extraordinary notions which the monks of those dark ages had formed
of the duties of Christianity so curious, that it almost compensated for
the calamity of losing the only good dinner which I had seen on Mount
Athos.

What a difference it would have made in the affairs of Europe if the
embassy of Barlaam had succeeded! The Turks would not have been now in
possession of Constantinople; and many points of difference having been
mutually conceded by the two great divisions of the church, perhaps the
Reformation never would have taken place. The narration of these events
was the more interesting to me, as I had it from the lips of a monk who
to all intents and purposes was living in the darkness of remote
antiquity. His ample robes, his long beard, and the Byzantine
architecture of the ancient room in which we sat, impressed his words
upon my remembrance; and as I looked upon the eager countenance of the
abbot, whose thoughts still were fixed upon the world from which he had
retired, while he discoursed of the troubles and discords which had
invaded the peaceful glades and quiet solitudes of the holy mountain, I
felt that there was no place left on this side of the grave where the
wicked cease from troubling or where the weary are at rest. No places,
however, that I have seen equal the beauty of the scenery and the calm
retired look of the small farmhouses, if they may so be called, which I
met with in my rides on the declivities of Mount Athos. These buildings
are usually situated on the sides of hills opening on the land which the
monastic labourers cultivate; they consist of a small square tower,
usually appended to which are one or two little stone cottages, and an
ancient chapel, from which the tinkling of the bar which calls the monks
to prayer may be heard many times a day echoing softly through the
lovely glades of the primaeval forest. The