ABSTRACT
Thus it was not only a state of War, it was a crisis of Revolution. A fever kindred to that which burned through Italy in the fiercest days of the strife between Guelf and Ghibelline-nay, little less passionate and delirious than that disordered frenzy which existed in the various towns of France, while the Jacobins and the Girondists contended for empire in the capital-began to rage throughout the communities of Greece. Sedition in the city and war through the land inflamed the passions, till the character itself grew congenial to the fiery atmosphere it breathed. In this new and revolutionary strife of party, man-to use a homely and strong expression-felt that he lived fast; the slow-growing objects of a rational ambition ceased to tempt: he must hasten to subdue his enemy, or his enemy would subdue him. Thus even words lost their old character and a morality was shaped correspondent to the evils of the time. Brutal ferocity was considered true courage-a slow discretion was specious cowardice-the violent man was thought the honest —emulation consisted in the competition of knavery and craft, and he was deemed the wisest man, who succeeded best in deceiving his fellow rogue. In such a state of evil frequent in civil war, common in revolutions, and foulest as in Greece and in France, where both war and revolution have been united, true relationship itself is weakened. Clubs became numerous, and then true brotherhood was political association.
