Greek Referendum: thoughts in historical perspective

As to finance “Greece has been bankrupt from her birth.”                                                                        -  Whig observer, circa 1750[1]


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To understand Greece, is, of course, to pardon her, and gratitude to the mother of art, poetry, freedom, civilization, the bulwark of Europe against the East, must make us not only forgive, but help and hope the cause of the little kingdom.[2]

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We barbarians have never adored Greek character, old or new.[3]

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[1] Andrew Lang, “Edmond About and Greece” in Edmond About, The King of the Mountains, intro. by Andrew Lang (New York: Collier, 1902), p. vi.

[2]Ibid., p. xiv.

[3] Ibid.