Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/290

 natural features of the country are unalterable. The pine-forests of Lycæus, its deep glens continually refreshed with sparkling streams and cataracts, its savage precipices where scarce even a goat can climb, remain in their original beauty and grandeur. This region also affords pasture to flocks of sheep more numerous than those which feed in any other part of Greece. But whatever depends on the moral nature of man is changed. The valleys, once richly cultivated and tenanted by an overflowing population, are scarcely kept in tillage. The noble cities are traced only by their scattered ruins. The few descendants of the ancient Arcades have crouched beneath a degrading tyranny. The thick forests and awful caverns but a few years ago served to shelter fierce banditti; and the traveller startled at the sound of their fire-arms instead of being charmed with the sweet melody of the syrinx. But a new dynasty has been established under the sanction of the most powerful and enlightened nations of Europe. It remains to be seen whether this or any other part of Greece will again become wise, virtuous, and renowned. The philanthropist, who amidst the gloom and desolation of the moral world depends with confidence upon an all-wise and all-disposing Providence, may console himself with the hope, that that great Being who bestowed such inestimable blessings upon Arcadian shepherds in their ignorance, will not abandon those of their descendants, who with superior means of knowledge, aim at corresponding attainments in the excellencies of political, social, and private life.

According to the representation in the Odyssey (xiv. 100.)