6

has gone, they are not inferior to Turks.' Had Englishmen been subjected to a similar thraldom for an equal length of time, they would doubtless have exhibited as melancholy an example of the awful corruption of the heart.' With regard to their alleged want of truth, Mr. H. acknowledges that there is too much ground for the imputation, but that he has never had reason to believe that the Greeks are more culpable in this respect than the Turks. It is difficult to say, indeed, what 'kind of falsehood can exceed that which is practised in Turkish 'courts of justice,' where the employment of false witnesses, even before the Grand Vizir or any other public functionary, is so frequent and well known, that it might almost seem as if no shame were felt in consequence.' Now, though the falsehood of the Turks will not extenuate that of the Greeks, it must be recollected, that those writers who have given the most unfavourable representations of the Greek character, have for the most part contrasted it with that of their masters, which has been the subject of partial and extravagant eulogy. Mr. Hartley affirms, that the same vices are common to both. Both, for instance, are inclined to plunder. The extortions of Ottoman pashas and agas are notorious, and the Turkish banditti of Asia Minor may be matched against the Greek klephts. On the other hand, with drunkenness," which has been represented as a prevailing vice among them, the Greeks cannot be charged nationally'; and in the domestic relations, they exhibit traits of amiableness, and a degree of virtuous feeling, which advantageously distinguish them from the Ottomans. The question is, not what the Greek is, but of what he is susceptible; what he is capable of being made. Our answer is, a Christian. And few as may be the number of genuine Christians in Greece, they are sufficient to render the sweeping and malignant invectives against the nation as unjust as they are unfeeling, and to justify the hopes expressed by the Bishop of Talanti to the Rev. Jonas King, the estimable American missionary, that Greece would be saved, because God 'hears prayer.'* After adverting to one pleasing example of piety, Mr. Hartley says:

That there may be many excellent Greeks who live in the spirit of prayer, and in the hope of immortality, I indulge the confidence, not only from this instance, but from others which I might mention. One shall suffice. The individual to whom I refer is a person of learning. Conversing with him on the subject of prayer, he gave me to understand, that life would be almost intolerable to him, if he could not obtain at least one hour for daily communion with God. His expression was a very strong one: "Were I to be in Paradise, and

See Eclectic Review, 3d Series, Vol. VI. p. 56. Article, Religion in Greece.

could not daily hold communion with God, to me it would be no Paradise." I have reason to believe that he spoke the language of his heart.' p.

113.

The present volume contains also some interesting, but melancholy information with regard to the desolated state of the Morea; and it supplies, incidentally, an emphatic exposure of the ignorance, or worse than ignorance, of the panegyrist of Ibrahim Pasha in the Quarterly Review, on one remarkable point. The Reviewer, with whom the word of Captain Hamilton goes for nothing, affects to discredit altogether the notorious fact of the cruelties practised by the Egyptian army; and with regard to their tearing up trees by the roots,' he thus endeavours to dispose of the fact by a quibble: This last particular, indeed, appears to us the most extraordinary fact ever recited, as an indi'cation of the fell destroyer's purpose to complete the devastation of the country. Could a devastating army employ its time and labour more harmlessly? The truth seems to be, that nothing 'but a pre-determination to find a verdict against Ibrahim, could induce the admirals to proceed on such evidence.' * We transcribe without comment the following statement from Mr. Hartley's pages.

One of the most serious losses of Greece, has consisted in the wanton destruction of its olive-trees. In the district of Corone alone, as Mr. King informs us, not less than 290,000 trees have been cut down by the Arabs. p. 28.

Speaking of the villages destroyed by Ibrahim's Arabs, in the plain of Astros, the Writer remarks: How applicable to the Morea is the language of the Prophet,-"Your country is 'desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers 'devour it in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown 'by strangers!" "

One interesting feature of the volume, is the numerous illustrations of Scripture which are scattered through Mr. Hartley's journal, in addition to those which are arranged under a distinct head. We select a single specimen.

I accompanied Logothetes across the water (from Poros) into the Morea. I had my attention soon directed to the practice of grafting the olive-trees, to which St. Paul alludes. (Rom. xi. 17. 20. 23, 24.) My friend shewed me a few wild olives; but by far the greater number are such as have been grafted. He informs me, that it is the universal practice in Greece, to graft from a good tree, upon the wild olive.' p. 327.

The Apostle, however, seems to allude to an opposite practice;

that of grafting the oleaster upon the olive, which Columella and other authorities represent to have prevailed with success.

Fæcundat sterilis pingues oleaster olivas,

Et quæ non novit munera ferre docet'.

The volume comprises also the journal of a visit made by Mr. Hartley to the Apocalyptic Churches' in the year 1826: and it is on this account that we have connected with it Mr. Milner's copious and elaborate illustration of their history. His volume, the plan of which, he informs us, is connected with the reminiscences of his earliest years, affords a somewhat uncommon specimen of the complete exhaustion of a favourite subject. The industry with which every ray of historic light is collected and made to bear upon it, the enthusiasm which it seems to have kindled in the Author's mind, and the valuable purpose which the volume is designed to promote, cannot fail to excite approbation. In speaking of Greece, one is apt to forget, that ancient Hellas and the Islands of the Archipelago form only a part of the region over which the language, institutions, and all that is characteristic of the Greeks, once extended. To say nothing of Magna Græcia, the Asiatic peninsula, (which Mr. Milner erroneously confounds with it,) as well as Cyprus and Crete, and the southern shores of the Levant, might be included under the general denomination. It is in Natolia, which the wonders of art and the beauties of natural scenery once rendered the richest, the most populous, ' and the fairest portion of the globe, the favourite abode alike of 'its Eastern and Western conquerors, and the chosen residence of 'their fabled gods,'*-that the true character of that barbarous, 'anarchic despotism' is most unequivocally seen, beneath which, as Burke expressed it, the human race itself melts away and 'perishes under the eye of the observer.' We must once more have recourse to the pages of Mr. Hartley, who says, speaking of the astonishing loss of population' which these parts of the world have sustained since ancient times:

I have wandered amidst the ruins of Ephesus; and I had ocular and auricular demonstration, that where once assembled thousands exclaimed, Great is Diana of the Ephesians, now the eagle yells, the jackal moans, the echoes of Mount Prion and Mount Coryssus no longer reply to the voice of man. I have stood on the Hill of Laodicea, and I found it without a single resident inhabitant. There was, indeed, an inferiority in its desolations to those of Babylon. Of Babylon it was predicted, (Isaiah xiii. 20,) The Arabian shall not pitch tent there. At Laodicea, the Turcoman had pitched his migratory tent in the area of its ancient amphitheatre; but I saw neither church nor temple, mosque nor minaret, nor a single permanent abode. The ca

* Modern Traveller, Vol. III. p. 356.

pital of the island of Corfu-to allude to a place adjacent to Turkeyis reported to have once contained 120,000 inhabitants: now, the entire island only numbers 60,000. Athenæus assures us, on the authority of Aristotle, that gina formerly possessed a slave population of 470,000: now, the total number of Eginetans is probably not more than 12,000. I have myself observed the exactitude with which the denunciations of Divine anger against the three Churches of Ephesus, Sardis, and Laodicea have been fulfilled. Whilst the other four churches of Asia, which are in part commended, and in part more mildly menaced, are still populous cities, and contain communities of nominal Christians, of each of these it may now be said, that it is empty, and void, and waste. And though the Arabian may pitch tent at Laodicea, and the shepherds, as at Ephesus, make their fold there, still have they scarcely been inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation. Wild beasts of the desert lie there-hyænas, wolves, and foxes. Their houses are full of doleful creatures: scorpions, enormous centipedes, lizards, and other noxious reptiles, crawl about amidst the scattered ruins; and serpents hiss and dart along through the rank grass which grows above them. And owls dwell there. When I was standing beneath the three stupendous columns of the Temple of Cybele, which are still remaining at Sardis, I looked upward, and saw the species of owl which the Greeks call Cuckuvaia, perched on the summit of one of them. Its name is derived from its note; and, as it flits around the desolate ruins, emitting this doleful sound, it might almost seem to have been appointed to chaunt from age to age the dirge of these forsaken cities. And here the distich of Hafiz is most

true:

"The spider has wove his web in the imperial palace;

And the owl hath sung her watch-song on the towers of Afrasiab."

I paid a visit to the city of Colossæ, -if that, indeed, may be called a visit, which left us in some degree of uncertainty whether we had actually discovered its remains. Colossæ has become doubly desolate : its very ruins are scarcely visible. Many a harvest has been reaped, where Epaphras and Archippus laboured. The vine has long produced its fruits, where the ancient Christians of Colossæ lived and died; and the leaves of the forest have for ages been strewn upon their graves. The Turks, and even the Greeks who reap the harvest and who prune the vine where Colossæ once stood, have scarcely an idea that a Christian church ever existed there, or that so large a population is there reposing in death.

How total is the work of demolition and depopulation in those regions, is evident from the fact, that the site of many ancient cities is still unknown. It was owing to the exertions of Mr. Arundell, my fellow-traveller in Asia, that the remains of Apamea and Sagalassus were brought to light: and there are still cities mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, which have eluded research. Where is Antioch of Pisidia? Where are Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia? Where is Perga of Pamphylia? We sought for Antioch, on our journey through Pisidia; but its place, as yet, has not been found. Count Alexandre de Laborde, a French gentleman distinguished for his scien

VOL. VII.-N.S.

31

tific attainments, went in search of Lystra and Derbe. An opinion had obtained ground, that extensive ruins, at a place named by the Turks Bin bir kilisa, "The thousand and one churches ", were the remains of one of these cities. But, as I was informed by Count Laborde, it proved, on examination, that the opinion was altogether unpp. 9-13.

founded.'

As Mr. Milner's volume is chiefly a compilation, it will not be expected, that we should be very particular in our notice of its contents. The first chapter treats of the Divine Inspiration of 'the Apocalypse;' the second, of the Exile of John and the Isle of Patmos. Ephesus is the subject of the third, occupying 120 pages. The reader will, perhaps, be curious to know by what process the history of that city can have been made to take up so large a space; but we can give no fair idea, without extended extracts, of the entertaining medley of history, legend, description, exposition, and annotation of every kind, of which Ephesus is made the text. We are surprised, however, that Mr. M. should have omitted to give the description of the supposed site of the Temple of Diana, furnished by Pococke and by Van Egmont, which he would have found in the "Modern Traveller" (vol. III. p. 130); a work of which he appears to have made use, although he does not once refer to it.

The topography of this interesting region still requires elucidation by more accurate survey. The valley of the Lycus above Laodicea, more especially invites examination with a view to identify the site of Colosse. Antioch, the capital of Pisidia, which is erroneously placed by D'Anville at Ak-shehr, is supposed by Mr. Arundell to have occupied the site of Isbarta (or Isparteh), a town which lies a little way out of the route from Adalia to Kutaya: it is the residence of a pasha and a Greck bishop, being the chief place in the sanjiakat of Hamid, which comprises the mountainous district of Milyas and the interior of Pisidia. Isparta has been supposed to be the ancient Sagalassus Lacedæmon; but an inscription found by Mr. Arundell at the modern village of Aglason, together with the similarity of the name, seems to identify Sagalassus with that place. Antioch was evidently in the direct route from Perga (which probably stood near Adalia) to Iconium. The usual route to the latter city from the coast, is by way of Kelendri and Karaman; and Col. Leake represents the two great roads from Kelendri and Adalia as uniting at Bulwudun (or Baloudeen), a large town considerably to the north of Isparta, and on the route from Konieh to Kutaya. But there can be no doubt, we think, that a more direct route must run eastward from Isparta to Konieh, which would be that taken by St. Paul; and by ascertaining this fact, the identity of the former place with the Pisidian Antioch would be satisfactorily established. We must not, however, now enter upon these topo