l62 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. schools, moreover, the works of classical authors and of the fathers of the Church no longer formed the only subjects of study. In them were taught the results of modern science, either from original works or from translations of the best foreign treatises. The principal source, says Bikelas, which sup- plied means to education, and was the strongest lever for raising the Greek people out of the rut of lethargy into which they had fallen, was com- merce. Commercial activity dates its revival from the eighteenth century. The Greeks of other days, said M. Juchereau de Saint-Denis, crushed under the yoke of Os- manic despotism, used to get European merchan- dise through the medium of European agents, established in the different seaports of the Levant. Within the last fifty years, under the impulse of their constantly disappointed hopes for a brighter future, they have taken to study- ing our language, imitating some of our manners and customs, and trying to gain some knowl- edge of Europe by personal observation. From the epoch when he wrote, the commerce of the Levant became mainly centred in the hands of the Hellenes. The Greeks began to experience pleasurable sensations of ease and comfort, and
