272 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. and its surroundings. I cannot say which of the three impressed me the most favorably : the wonders of art, those of nature, or the thousand good qualities I have seen in the Greeks them- selves. The Greeks, notwithstanding their faults — no nation is free from faults — notwith- standing their mistake in going to war alto- gether unprepared against a foe well prepared, well supported, and thrice as numerous, the Greeks not only have been, but never have ceased to be to this very moment, the noblest race. There exists no alcoholism in Greece. Even the bitter enemies of Greece, the tourists, who are fault-finding all the time, in their publica- tions generally mention that they never saw drunken people in Greece. The Greeks live plainly, moderately, and much more according to the laws of nature than the people in Europe or elsewhere in the civilized world. Obesity even is extremely rare. There are fewer crimes committed in Greece than in any other state of Europe. The only crimes which are compara- tively frequent are those of violence. Southern blood, easily excitable, although by no means ill-tempered — a little dispute about a trifle, words are exchanged, the dispute becomes hot,
