Oliver Goldsmith on the Modern Greeks (1453-1774; from History of Greece)

Excerpts from Dr. Goldsmith's concluding paragraph to "The History of Greece, From the Earliest State to the Death of Alexander the Great, To Which is Added A Summary Account of the Affairs of Greece, from That Period to the Sacking of Constantinople by the Othomans":

"The modern Greeks, without the least political importance...retain but little of their original character...
Simplicity, modesty, temperance, sincerity, and good faith, fled first...
Still, however, the ardent temper of the Greeks burst forth on various occasions; still they were distinguished by a quick sensibility to benefits and to injuries, hasty resolutions, and hasty repentance...
A quickness of invention, an acuteness of judgement, a subtlety in argumentation, have survived the extinction of virtue, and a characteristical hastiness of temper. These are still to be found in the disputations of the schools, and the profound, though dishonourable, artifices of the Grecian merchants."

My leather-bound edition (the fourteenth) is dated London, 1823. The quotation is from vol. 2, Chapter XXI, pages 324-325. 

First edition, as Grecian History, 1774.


Google Books has the 1825 edition online


Goldsmith's biased assessment and largely negative opinions of the character of the Greeks following the Fall of Constantinople are typical of their time (the book was written before the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence) and have been proved erroneous, even though Byron also shared some of these ambivalent views. Fortunately, other writers, like Laurence Binyon, have set the record straight. This is his 1940 poem, "The Lamp of Greece"

“Truth incorruptible lives on, though sight

Cloud, and the heart flinch, and the mind askance

Reject. Because she sought that radiance,

Unweariable lover of the light!

History’s marvel, Hellas in despite

Of time and interposing circumstance

Still stands above the siege of ignorance,

Serene before the armies of the night”.