is the
characteristic feature of all its history.

This movement was manifested in a brilliant manner some time ago, when
the general congress of all the societies and associations assembled
under the initiative of the Parnassus Society. This was a most evident
proof of the intellectual and national unity of Greece. Representatives
from all points wherever Hellenism is scattered--of free Greece, of
enslaved Greece, and of the Greek colonies established in all parts of
Europe--assembled at Athens, that Jerusalem of the dispersed people. The
congress, which lasted a fortnight, discussed several questions touching
the future of Greece and her mission in the East. We are unable at this
moment to say what were the results. What we hope is that from this
moment may commence a new era of work and of activity, greater, more
important, than that which has already preceded our modern history.
Alone, more or less proscribed, finding in the policy of the Western
Powers only a cold indifference, our future depends entirely upon
continual and persevering labour. Greece, though, doubtless, she has not
yet produced men worthy to be compared to the ancients,--those masters
in every branch of science, art, and literature,--is nevertheless the
most active agent in the propagation of Western civilization in the
East. We have seen this phenomenon produced in the Congress of the
_Syllogoi_, where might be seen the representatives of Athens and of
Constantinople, of Macedonia and of Asia Minor, of Alexandria and of the
Greek colonies established in Europe--of all places, in short, where the
beautiful and sonorous Greek tongue makes itself heard--discussing all
the questions which constitute the vital force of Hellenism. The words
of an ancient writer who called Athens "the Greece of Greece" were
brought to my memory when the president, in a parting address to the
members of the congress, called this latter "the organized manifestation
of the public consciousness, and the incarnation of the intellectual
unity of the nation."

This unity is concentrated in the University of Athens. This is the most
brilliant star, which directs the nation in the ways of civilization and
progress. It exercises a great and salutary influence as well in the
free country as in the neighbouring provinces. Pupils of the University
of Athens become zealous apostles, who propagate in all corners of the
East devotion to the national sentiment, and reawaken the ancient