Helladian Vistas Author:Daniel Quinn General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1910 Subjects: Greece Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more t... more »han a million books for free. Excerpt: HIGHER EDUCATION IN GREECE OF TODAY The regenerated people of Greece have enjoyed less than eighty years of independent existence. In 1830, the Great Powers of Europe formally agreed to allow a small but considerable portion of the Hellenes to reconstruct themselves into a new state. Ever since that year Greece has been slowly and laboriously, but at the same time steadily and continuously, coming up toward the degree of culture which is required for every nation that can claim to be under the full spell of "European" civilization. Whoever wishes to know what the modern Greeks have done for education must not only acquaint himself with the present condition of learning in Greece, but must also note the abject and degraded condition of the country at the beginning of the nineteenth century, as Byron, the Philhellene, described it, and must observe the progress made since that time. The present state of culture in Greece is to be measured, not by its present excellence and defects, but by its height above the level of culture which prevailed there during the last period of Turkish rule. As soon as the shackles of their long slavery were broken, the inhabitants of Greece began to reassert their ancient love for learning. Even while the war was still in its highest fury, the bloody face of Bellona did not effectively frighten the muses into the muteness of despair. Such of the priests and old men as were unable to bear arms in the holy struggle, but who knew something of letters and books, used to assemblethe children of the absent warriors into some hut or beneath some tree, and by m...« less