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
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