Greece under the Romans [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION "George Finlay," said the late Dr. Richard Gamett, "was a great historian, of the type of Polybius, Procopius, and Macchia-velli." He was a man-of-aiFairs before he was a man-of-letters : he qualified himself for writing history by helping to make it. He had fought for Greece, hoping, as he said, to aid in putting her on the high road " that leads to a rapid increase of production, population, and material improvement." He sacrificed his worldly chances to the cause of Greece in fact, with an enthusiasm not less than that of Lord Byron, whom he had met at Cephalonia in 1823. " I lost my money and my labour, but I learned how the system of tenths has produced a state of society and habits of cultivation, against which one man can do nothing. When I had wasted as much money as I possessed, I turned my attention to study." The first notable result of this intellectual step which was given to the world was the present volume, originally published in 1844. To resume his own account of his historical work: " I had planned," he says, " writing a true history of the Greek revolution in such a way as to exhibit the condition of the people. I wished to make it useful to those who come after us. It grew gradually into the History of Greece under Foreign Domination and the History of the Greek Revolution. I have hardly been more successful in my writings than in my farming. I fear I may say— I am one the more To baffled millions who have gone before." There is no doubt that towards the end of his career Finlay was inclined to depreciate the value of his contribution both to the history and the cause of Greece. However, exception has been taken by some of those who knew him intimately, to the idea that this was produced by anything like settled melancholy or lasting disappointment: if the graver feeling was latterly to be traced in him, it was due to failing health and to the loss of a favourite daughter. George Finlay came of good Scottish stock, was tlie grandson