asserted, that the fact was mentioned by St. Luke himself, in his Gospel. Of course, I challenged him to produce the passage. He returned home, in order to search for it; and appeared much abashed, when I next met him, at having failed in his inquiry.

In nothing, perhaps, are the Greeks so rigorous, as in their obedience to the prescribed Fasts of their Church. It is not only persons of life comparatively moral who are observant of these institutions, but even men of a character the very opposite. During the trial of some pirates at Malta, it appeared that the individuals, who were convicted, had, during a long course of piracy, observed most conscientiously the fasts of their Church. There was little doubt that they had even committed murder; and yet they had been guilty of no infraction of the laws of fasting. Some of the Samiot free-booters, in the course of a plundering expedition to the neighbourhood of Smyrna, entered a Greek house, and demanded food. Animal food was presented to them. They shrunk from it with abhorrence: "How could they be guilty of such a sin?" I have made voyages with Greeks of the most vicious character. They were men who seemed to indulge, without restraint, in profaneness, falsehood, and licentiousness; and yet these very persons, when they observed me partaking of animal food on their fastdays, have turned from me as a person guilty of a

sin to which they were happily strangers. I have been assured, on authority which I could not question, that infants not unfrequently perish, because their mothers refuse to take the nourishment which is requisite for a due supply of milk.

The union which is observable between a rigid attention to certain ordinances of religion, and an open violation of its most important precepts, is easily explained. The human mind is seldom so entirely insensible to the superior interests of eternity, as to neglect every species of preparation for them. It looks for something, either active or passive, either great or small, which may in some degree still the voice of conscience, and impart hope on approaching the grave. Amongst the Greeks, the injunctions of abstinence afford a most convenient resource of this description. Whatever crime may have been committed, the reflection, that strict obedience has been rendered to the self-denying command of abstinence, presents a soporific to the conscience, otherwise ready to be startled by an alarm of guilt; and, practically, dependence is placed on it, as on an atonement sufficient to expiate the offence.

The same principle operates, perhaps, universally. It is discovered very frequently in our own land, though its effects are somewhat different. Conversing on such subjects as these, with a British naval officer-" What difference is there," he inquired,

"between these Greeks, and so many of our countrymen, who are most constant in their habitual attendance at their parish church, whilst you almost fail to discover any other attention to religion in their character?" The remark was founded in truth. How many, unhappily, are there, whose attendance on some of the external ordinances of religion, instead of becoming a most valuable means of obtaining decided renovation of disposition and character, appears to have no other effect, than that of lulling them into a most fatal lethargy, and of enabling them to pronounce, with more destructive emphasis to their conscience, Peace! Peace! when there is no peace.

The Greeks have no less than four Lents in each year; one before Easter, another before Christmas, a third in honour of the Virgin Mary, and a fourth in honour of the Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul. Add to these, two weekly fasts, and the other occasional fasts; and the number of days, annually, on which fasting is enjoined, exceeds those on which permission to eat animal food is sanctioned. The weekly fast-days fall on Wednesday and Friday; and it is one of the melancholy instances of contest for trifles, to which the Greeks have too easily descended, that they maintain with warmth the propriety of fasting on Wednesday, and not on Saturday, as is the case in the church of Rome.

In many of these exercises of abstinence, minute

attention is paid to special articles of food permitted or proscribed. Frequently, not only the flesh of land animals, but every kind of fish is forbidden. A species of polypus, kтandi, is at these times in great request; and, in general, shellfish and bloodless creatures are allowed. Even cheese, eggs, milk, and oil, are amongst the unlawful articles of diet. In the course of Lent, some days intervene when a degree of indulgence is conceded, and cheese and oil are permitted: hence one of the Sundays in Lent is called Cheese-Sunday. I have even observed the Lesson for the day designated by this title.

In the very frequent conversations on this subject which I have had in various parts of the Levant, I have found that the sign of apostacy, intimated (1 Tim. iv. 3.) by the command to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving, has not failed to produce considerable effect. The declaration, too, of the Pharisee, I fast twice in the week, strikes them with peculiar force; for every Greek is at once brought to the recollection, that he has been relying on the very same observance, as a matter of first-rate importance. It will perhaps be thought singular, but I have found the remark universal, that it is to be attributed, as a principal cause, to the fasts of the church, that the lower orders have been prevented from embracing generally the Mussulman religion.

CHAPTER V.

RELIGION OF THE MODERN GREEKS.

The Seven Mysteries or Sacraments

Baptism-Mode of Immersion→ Classical names given to children-The Chrism - Transubstantiation recently introduced amongst the Greeks-Mode of celebrating the Lord's Supper-Azymists and Enzymists-Confession, and absolution-Abuses arising from these doctrines-Anecdote of a monk who confessed to the author-Excess of precaution against the marriage of relatives-The holy oil-Animosities of the Greeks and Latins-Procession of the Holy Ghost-View of Purgatory-Marriage of the clergy-Monasticism-Concluding remarks.

THE Greeks, as well as the Latins, number Seven Sacraments or Mysteries. Of these, they consider Baptism and the Lord's Supper of superior importance.

In their estimation, it is of great moment that immersion be employed in Baptism; nor do they hold any person baptized, who has not been three times immersed; once in the name of the Father, once in the name of the Son, and a third time in the name of the Holy Ghost. But though, in argument, they insist so much on immersion, in practice it can scarcely be asserted that they use this form. The child to be baptized is placed