F. A. PACKARD, M.D., Kearney, Neb.: “Dear Sir and Doctor, Your book on ‘Christian Greece and Living Greek’ received. I must say it is a grand work and I prize it highly and consider it a valuable addition to my library. Wishing you success, etc.”
A. JACOBI, M.D., Professor Columbia University: “Dear Dr. Rose, The perusal of your book has been a source of much pleasure to me. If Hellas has as enthusiastic men and women among her own people as you are, a friend in a foreign nation, she will have a promising future.”
MR. LOUIS PRANG, Boston, Mass.: “‘Christian Greece and Living Greek’ has given me not only great pleasure to read but I have learned more about Greece, as it was and as it really is, than I ever knew before. Your book is exceedingly valuable to a man like me who desires reliable information on this very interesting people and who lacks the time for personal investigation or much book-reading, which after all, to judge by your statements, would not lead to a correct appreciation of present conditions. Your personal experience based on large and varied observations among the people, and your evidently thorough study of past history make your judgment acceptable, and your manner of giving it to the reader is eminently interesting and engaging, and above all convincing. I do not think that what I have said here will be of much interest or satisfaction to you, as coming from a simple business man, but I wished to thank you for the enjoyment your book has given me and to tell you that you have made at least one convert for the cause of living Greek.”
A GREEK LADY, living in Cairo, Egypt, writes to her father: “I thank you above all for the book of Dr. Rose you were so kind as to send me, and which I am perusing with the greatest interest. One can see that Dr. Rose is a friend of our dear country; if there were more like him we would not be so run down by ignorant and spiteful people.”
[From New York Medical Journal, March 5th, 1898.]
Dr. Rose’s well-known enthusiasm for the Greeks, their country, and particularly their language has resulted in the production of a very interesting book. Physicians will naturally be most interested in the concluding chapter, which treats of Greek as the international language of physicians and scholars in general, but from cover to cover there is nothing commonplace in the book; it is quite readable throughout. We congratulate Dr. Rose on the appearance of the volume in so attractive a form.
[From The Independant, March 24th, 1898.]
Dr. Rose stands forth in his volume the champion of modern Greece, the Greeks and their wrongs. He tells the story as it has been developed in this century, and recites the older history and appeals to the intelligent Christian world against the Great Assassin of Constantinople. He believes the modern Greek tongue as now spoken and written to be the ideal one for international intercourse, especially on scientific matters, and repudiates the Erasmian method of pronunciation. His account of the Greeks themselves is encouraging. He claims for them a strict morality. Theft he declares unknown, and drunkenness. The book is certainly eloquent and inspiring.
[From The Living Church, Chicago, March 19th, 1898.]
This is a most interesting book. There is not a dull page in it. It is made up of various lectures delivered by the accomplished author, at different times, on the Greek language and history. Magnificent as Gibbon’s work is on the Byzantine Empire, the contemptuous tone he uses toward it has much misled modern writers and readers in their estimation of that wonderful monarchy. A state which lasted as that did in the face of so many difficulties, could not have been so badly governed as Gibbon implies. That Dr. Rose shows, and a good, English, up-to-date Byzantine history is greatly to be desired. Dr. Rose’s account of the Greek struggle for independence is vivid, patriotic, and full of information on a subject that few people know much about. The most interesting part of the book to scholars is the chapters on modern Greek. Dr. Rose says: “The living Greek of to-day shows much less deviation from the Greek of two thousand and more years ago than any other European language shows in the course of centuries.” This statement will surprise many, but it is literally true. Dr. Rose gives the history of the creation of the modern Greek literary language on the lines of classic Greek, and he advocates the use of modern Greek, especially in the matter of pronunciation, in teaching classic Greek. In all this we go with him heartily, and his views are being adopted in many colleges in Europe and America.