THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

BYKON AND THE GREEKS 139
erosity, a steadfastness of purpose, and withal a
shrewd common-sense, which could scarcely have been
expected of his wayward genius.
The glorious Hellas
of his dreams had faded, for the time, in the hard, grey
light of a day of sordid realities. Yet here, beneath his
eyes, was a Hellas, human, pitiful, bleeding from many
wounds; it was not for him to gather his poet's robe
about him, and pass by on the other side. Many had
come out to fight for the cause of Greece thinking to
find a country peopled with the heroic types of old,
had found instead a race of brigands, and departed in
disgust. Many more had remained, their eyes so
blinded by Philhellenic prejudice that they were content
to gloss over the worst crimes of the Greeks with
classical allusions. Byron belonged to neither of these
classes. He knew that half-barbarous peoples are full
of vices, and that emancipated slaves are not of the stuff
that makes heroes. He saw in a very clear light the
dishonesty, the meanness, the selfishness of the Greeks ;
'
and yet he did not despair of Greece. I was a fool
to come here/ he wrote, on the 7th of October, from
Cephalonia, '
but, having come here, I must see what
can be done.' *
Once out of the realm of dreams, and brought
face to face with facts, the activity of Byron on behalf
i Moore's Life, p. 601.