left in their lungs, they cried out, "we prefer political slavery rather
than to be the slaves of the Pope," and for more than three centuries
the Greeks suffered such a martyrdom which if only printed it would be
more than a human heart could bear.

The history of Greece shall remain until the end of time, and as the
peoples of the world grow intelligently and intellectually more
enlightened they will come to the appreciation of the fact that the
Greek people has contributed more material in paving the way to the
spiritual freedom and the individual liberty of the world than any other
nation on the face of the earth, and that the Greek spirit is still
living and ruling in principle in the very heart of the civilized world.

It is essential that every nation in making up the list of its
benefactors should give the first place to the most distinguished one.
In accordance to the general law the Greek nation of today not only owes
its literary language, in part at least, to the exertions of the great
patriot Korais, but to him is accredited the prophecy, that, "the Greek
nation shall never be great again, unless regenerated in Christ."

Adamantios Korais was born April 27, 1747, in Smyrna. From early youth
he devoted himself to the study of old and new languages. In obedience
to his father's wishes, he followed a mercantile career during the year
1772-78, without, however, neglecting the sciences. From 1782-88 he
studied medicine in Montpellier and established himself as a practising
physician in Paris. From there he worked incessantly for the education
of his compatriots, and endeavored to awaken a favorable opinion of his
nation in the Occidental countries. In 1800 he received the prize of the
Academy for an edition of the writings of Hippocrates, but before this
time he had attracted the attention of the world of learning by his
ability, and Napoleon the Great conferred upon him many honors and
titles and appointed him the medical adviser of the Court. Later on he
gained fame by his Greek translation of Beccaria's work on crimes and
their punishments. This was followed by a work entitled "De l'etat
actuel de la civilization en Greece" (Paris, 1803). This was the first
publication in Europe which gave true information on the intellectual
and moral conditions of the new Greeks. During the period from 1805-27
he published a collection--twenty volumes--of old Greek classics, with
critical explanations and prolegomena. In t