Turkish phrase-master. I troubled myself a great deal with the
Turkish tongue, and gained at last some knowledge of its structure.
It is enriched, perhaps overladen, with Persian and Arabic words,
imported into the language chiefly for the purpose of representing
sentiments and religious dogmas, and terms of art and luxury,
entirely unknown to the Tartar ancestors of the present Osmanlees;
but the body and the spirit of the old tongue are yet alive, and
the smooth words of the shopkeeper at Constantinople can still
carry understanding to the ears of the untamed millions who rove
over the plains of Northern Asia. The structure of the language,
especially in its more lengthy sentences, is very like to the
Latin: the subject matters are slowly and patiently enumerated,
without disclosing the purpose of the speaker until he reaches the
end of his sentence, and then at last there comes the clenching
word, which gives a meaning and connection to all that has gone
before. If you listen at all to speaking of this kind your
attention, rather than be suffered to flag, must grow more and more
lively as the phrase marches on.

The Osmanlees speak well. In countries civilised according to the
European plan the work of trying to persuade tribunals is almost
all performed by a set of men, the great body of whom very seldom
do anything else; but in Turkey this division of labour has never
taken place, and every man is his own advocate. The importance of
the rhetorical art is immense, for a bad speech may endanger the
property of the speaker, as well as the soles of his feet and the
free enjoyment of his throat. So it results that most of the Turks
whom one sees have a lawyer-like habit of speaking connectedly, and
at length. Even the treaties continually going on at the bazaar
for the buying and selling of the merest trifles are carried on by