Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/173

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THE GREEKS UNDER TURKISH BONDAGE. 151 there must be some light. And indeed we shall now see the dawn of a new glory of Hellas, when we come to speak of her great patriot Korais, and further on when we shall see how their religion was the most potent means of sav- ing the Greeks. Korais, in the preface to his translation of Beccaria, expressed his conviction that no remedy could heal the misfortune of the Greeks but the light of science; and he made it his task to imbue the hearts of the youth of Hellas with love for their glorious ancestors, the youth who were destined to become Greece's legislators. From the moment Korais read his " Memoire sur r^tat actuel de la civilisation dans la Grece" }wji before a learned society in Paris in 1803, i^i order to direct the eyes of the world to the regeneration of his country, until the time of the uprising of the Greeks, when he wrote his political admonitions, he incessantly reminded his countrymen of patriotism, union, lawfulness, and perseverance. He spoke to them as citizen, as patriot, as philosopher, in the spirit of Plutarch, who wrote his biographies for the purpose of giving the oppressed Greeks self-respect before ] the Romans. Korais' aim all the time was to