f a century efforts have been
made by the government of Constantinople to innovate on the existing
condition of its people; and it has addressed itself in the first
instance to certain details of daily Turkish life. We must take it for
granted that it began with such changes as were easiest; if so, its
failure in these small matters suggests how little ground there is for
hope of success in other advances more important and difficult. Every
one knows that in the details of dress, carriage, and general manners,
the Turks are very different from Europeans: so different, and so
consistently different, that the contrariety would seem to arise from
some difference of essential principle. "This dissimilitude," says Mr.
Thornton, "which pervades the whole of their habits, is so general, even
in things of apparent insignificance, as almost to indicate design
rather than accident. The whole exterior of the Oriental is different
from ours." And then he goes on to mention some specimens, to which we
are able to add others from Volney and Bell. For instance:--The European
stands firm and erect; his head drawn back, his chest advanced, his toes
turned out, his knees straight. The attitude of the Turk, in each of
these particulars, is different, and, to express myself by an
antithesis, is more conformable to nature, and less to reason. The
European wears short and close garments, the Turk long and ample. The
one uncovers the head, when he would show reverence; with the other, a
bared head is a sign of folly. The one salutes by an inclination, the
other by raising himself. The one passes his life upright, the other
sitting. The one sits on raised seats, the other on the ground. In
inviting a person to approach, the one draws his hand to him, the other
thrusts it from him. The host in Europe helps himself last; in Turkey,
first. The one drinks to his company, or at least to some toast; the
other drinks silently, and his guests congratulate him. The European has
a night dress, the Turk lies down in his clothes. The Turkish barber
pushes the razor from him; the Turkish carpenter draws the saw to him;
the Turkish mason sits as he builds; and he begins a house at the top,
and finishes at the bottom, so that the upper rooms are inhabited, when
the bottom is a framework.

Now it would seem as if this multitude of little usages hung together,
and were as difficult to break through as the meshes of some complicated
web. However, the Sultan fou