By special invitation, I attended a lecture (one of a series) delivered by Mr. Perdicaris, upon the literary and political history of modern Greece. It was marked by a rich yet chaste imagination, a generous glow of patriotic enthusiasm, and the eloquence which they naturally inspire. You may feel a curiosity, as I did, to know somewhat of the _outer man_ of a modern Greek. Mr. P. is about the middle height, or five feet nine; shoulders broad, and a stout frame; black hair, disposed to curl; large black whiskers, flanking a broad oval face, the complexion whereof is a darkish olive--as dark, at least, as Mr. Webster's. Having been eleven years in this country, he speaks our language fluently and intelligibly: indeed, as is usual with those who learn a foreign tongue from books, and from enlightened native speakers, his _English_ is remarkably pure. A few rhetorical and grammatical faults there were--for instance, "_he left Athens_" was curtailed (_a la Yankee_) to "_he left_." This is a New England-ism not confined to the vulgar: neither is the phrase "he _conducted well_," for "he conducts _himself_ well;" nor "considerable _of_ a place," for "a considerable place." We hear Yankees of respectable literary pretensions, too, saying _shall_, where the English idiom certainly requires _will_; as, "shall you visit Boston during your tour?"[1]--and clipping the infinitive mood, in a way equally contrary to the good customs of the realm--thus--"I have not written yet, but to-day _I intend to_." But I am chasing game that is hardly worth the powder. [Footnote 1: If I mistake not, I have heard Mr. Webster himself use _shall_ in this manner. It is an innovation, sustained by no eminent authority or precedent in England; and is confined, in America, to the north side of the Potomac, if not to the east of the Hudson. With that still grosser affectation, "the house is _being built_," "a war is _being waged_," it should be promptly arrested, before it shall have become inseparably mingled in the "well of English undefiled." By the way, this latter _refinement_ prevails more in the south than in the north.]