Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/21

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
A POLITICAL RETROSPECT ON GREECE.
xiii

privileged position, which nobody understands better than the Sultan himself. If Greece has sinned, it was on the side of compassion for her oppressed children and coreligionists. She is bleeding from every pore of her mutilated body, but there is a Nemesis which sooner or later will overtake those who seem to rejoice now at her defeat and humiliation. There is, however, great vitality in the Greek race. Hellenism has gone through many severe trials in past ages and finally has come out victorious. It may be hoped that the Greeks of to-day will profit by the severe lessons which they have received, and their late disaster may after all prove a blessing in disguise, if they go bravely to work, reform their political system, pay more attention to interior improvements than to foreign politics, elevate the national character, and fulfil their national aspirations by the arts of peace, and attract once more the sympathies of those to whom the word "Hellas" means always civilization and progress.