Commercial morals, especially, are bad. There is no gainsaying that.
Greek, Turkish, and Armenian morals consist only in attending church
regularly on the appointed Sabbaths, and in breaking the ten
commandments all the balance of the week. It comes natural to them to
lie and cheat in the first place, and then they go on and improve on
nature until they arrive at perfection. In recommending his son to a
merchant as a valuable salesman, a father does not say he is a nice,
moral, upright boy, and goes to Sunday-school and is honest, but he
says, “This boy is worth his weight in broad pieces of a hundred—for
behold, he will cheat whomsoever hath dealings with him, and from the
Euxine to the waters of Marmora there abideth not so gifted a liar!” How
is that for a recommendation? The missionaries tell me that they hear
encomiums like that passed upon people every day. They say of a person
they admire, “Ah, he is a charming swindler, and a most exquisite liar!”