st centuries in their struggle with
the Moors, without wishing Godspeed, in mere consistency, to any
Christian Power, which aims at delivering the East of Europe from the
Turkish yoke.
THE TURKS.
I. THE MOTHER COUNTRY OF THE TURKS.
LECT. PAGE
1. The Tribes of the North 1
2. The Tartars 19
II. THE DESCENT OF THE TURKS.
3. The Tartar and the Turk 48
4. The Turk and the Saracen 74
III. THE CONQUESTS OF THE TURKS.
5. The Turk and the Christian 104
6. The Pope and the Turk 131
IV. THE PROSPECTS OF THE TURKS.
7. Barbarism and Civilization 159
8. The Past and Present of the Ottomans 183
9. The Future of the Ottomans 207
Note 230
Chronological Tables 235
* * * * *
I.
THE MOTHER COUNTRY OF THE TURKS.
* * * * *
LECTURE 1.
_The Tribes of the North._
1.
The collision between Russia and Turkey, which at present engages public
attention, is only one scene in that persevering conflict, which is
carried on, from age to age, between the North and the South,--the North
aggressive, the South on the defensive. In the earliest histories this
conflict finds a place; and hence, when the inspired Prophets[1]
denounce defeat and captivity upon the chosen people or other
transgressing nations, who were inhabitants of the South, the North is
pointed out as the quarter from which the judgment is to descend.
Nor is this conflict, nor is its perpetuity, difficult of explanation.
The South ever has gifts of nature to tempt the invader, and the North
ever has multitudes to be tempted by them. The North has been fitly
called the storehouse of nations. Along the breadth of Asia, and thence
to Europe, from the Chinese Sea on the East, to the Euxine on the West,
nay to the Rhine, nay even to the Bay of Biscay, running between and
beyond the 40th and 50th degrees of latitude, and above the fruitful
South, stretches a vast plain, which has been from time immemorial what
may be called the wild common and place of encampment, or again the
highway, or the broad horse-path, of restless populations seeking a
home. The European po
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