From  the  downfall  of  the  Western  Roman  Empire,  and  es-
pecially after  the  alienation  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches,
the  influence  of  Greek  literature  had  been  decaying,  until  al-
most all  knowledge  of  it  had  died  out  in  the  West.  Only  here
and  there  a  name  is  mentioned  among  the  few  who  kept  alive
a  love  of  letters  in  Europe,  as  having  some  tincture  of  Grecian
learning.  In  the  East,  libraries  of  manuscripts,  formed  by  the
labors  of  centuries,  were  to  be  found,  not  only  in  the  schools  of
public  instruction,  but  in  the  monasteries.  The  ancient  classics
had  been  multiplied  in  parchment  copies,  carefully  and  hand-
somely transcribed  by  the  inmates  of  these  institutions  ;  but
many  of  these  perished  in  the  successive  plunderings  of  the
capital ;  and  the  final  loss  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  most
precious  treasures  of  ancient  genius  is  to  be  traced  to  the  bar-
barous conduct  of  the  Crusaders,  whose  very  names  Anna
Comnena  thought  it  an  insult  to  the  Greek  language  to  record,
and  of  the  Ottomans,  whose  agency  was  scarcely  more  de-
structive. But  before  either  of  these  pillaging  enterprises  took
place,  now  and  then  an    individual  found   his  way  from  the

vol.  ii.  25


886  MODERN   GREECE.
