he north, east, and south of the Mediterranean,
have felt some sort of reverence for their captive, and, while enjoying
her gifts, would have been merciful to the giver. But the same selfish
sensuality, with which they regard the rational creation of God,
possesses them in their conduct towards physical nature. They have made
the earth their paramour, and are heartless towards her dishonour and
her misery. We have lately been reminded in this place of the Doge of
Venice[48] making the Adriatic his bride, and claiming her by a ring of
espousal; but the Turk does not deign to legitimatize his possession of
the soil he has violently seized, or to gain a title to it by any sacred
tie; caring for no better right to it than the pirate has to the
jurisdiction of the high seas. Let the Turcoman ride up and down Asia
Minor or Syria for a thousand years, how is the trampling of his
horse-hoofs a possession of those countries, more than a Scythian raid
or a Tartar gallop across it? The imperial Osmanli sits and smokes long
days in his pavilion, without any thought at all of his broad domain
except to despise and to plunder and impoverish its cultivators; and is
his title made better thereby than the Turcoman's, to be the heir of
Alexander and Seleucus, of the Ptolemies and Massinissa, of Constantine
and Justinian? What claim does it give him upon Europe, Asia, and
Africa, upon Greece, Palestine, and Egypt, that he has frustrated the
munificence of nature and demolished the works of man?

5.

Asia Minor especially, the peninsula which lies between the Black Sea,
the Archipelago, and the Mediterranean, was by nature one of the most
beautiful, and had been made by art one of the most fertile of
countries. It had for generations contained flourishing marts of
commerce, and it had been studded with magnificent cities, the ruins of
which now stand as a sepulchre of the past. No country perhaps has seen
such a succession of prosperous states, and had such a host of
historical reminiscences, under such distinct eras and such various
distributions of territory. It is memorable in the beginning of history
for its barbarian kings and nobles, whose names stand as commonplaces
and proverbs of wealth and luxury. The magnificence of Pelops imparts
lustre even to the brilliant dreams of the mythologist. The name of
Croesus, King of Lydia, whom I have already had occasion to mention,
goes as a proverb for his enormous riches. Midas, King of Phr