or the ruder masses of a feudal castle. Artists may here find models; but the cursory traveller, who expects to be awed by the venerable aspect of ruin, will wonder at the apathy of his own feelings. He must become a student, in order to appreciate the excellence of the Gecian sculpture.

"Minerva, among the ancient Athenians, possessed nearly the same kind of pre-eminence, which the modern allow to the Virgin Mary. The worship of the Parthenia and the Panagia, differ only in ritual. Minerva is considered, by the my thologists, as the personification of the divine wisdom; and the fable of her issuing perfect from the head of Jupiter, they say, is descriptive of this notion. I have somewhere read, that one of her statues or temples bore an inscription which implied this opinion. Her contest with Neptune, for the wardenship of the city, is a very pretty allegory. The rival deities referred their respective pretensions to the twelve great gods, who decided, that the wardenship should be given to the one that produced the most useful thing to the citizens. Neptune instantly created the horse; and Minerva raised the olive. By the horse, navigation is hieroglyphically represented; ships are, also, often figuratively described as horses. The olive, which furnishes at once the means of light, food, and cleanliness, was preferred. This fable is but an account of an ancient dispute among the inhabitants of the city of Cecrops, whether they ought to devote themselves to maritime affairs, or to the cultivation of the soil. The question being referred to the twelve judges of the Areopagus, they decided in favour of the latter. The people, in consequence, preferred Minerva to Neptune.

"The temple of Theseus is the next object of admiration. It is an elegant Doric oblong columnar building, with a pediment of six pillars at each end. It has suffered less from time, or antiquaries, more destructive than time, than any other edifice in Athens. From the ornaments, it appears to have been dedicated to Hercules as well as to Theseus. The workmanship and architecture afford a favourable specimen of the state of the arts in the time of Pericles, by whose orders, I believe, this temple was raised.

"The character of Pericles had more magnificence about it than that of almost any of the Athenians. He possessed a powerful and commanding eloquence, and there was a generous ambition in his projects and actions, that makes him stand, in our imagination, more like, a Roman than a Greek. Plutarch ascribes to him an intention of connecting the states of Greece under one head, in order to form a representative republic, of which Athens should be the capital. His great rival was Cimon, who courted popularity, like a candidate for our parliament, canvassing before an election. He clothed and fed the poor, lent money to the needy gentry, laid out gardens for the gay, and built porticoes for the indolent. Pericles, on the contrary, endeavoured to adorn the state, and to ennoble the sentiments of his countrymen. The temporary selfish expedients of Cimon have perished; but the remains of the structures of Pericles attract travellers, from the remotest lands, to Athens, even at this day. Cimon is said to have been the first who planned conversational porticos. On this account, his statue should be placed in teagardens and coffee-houses; for the

gardons

gardens and porticos of the ancients were exactly places of that kind.

"Next in rank, perhaps superior in beauty, is the monument of Lysicrates, adjoining to the monastery in which we lodged. It is generally known by the ridiculous name of the Lantern of Demosthenes, given to it by some ignorant Greek Cicerone, who, probably, heard of Diogenes and his lantern, and eonfounded the orator with the cynic. Diogenes had, certainly, a very correct opinion of the Athenians, of whom it may be said, that, by their ostracism, they punished virtue as other nations do vice. The monument of Lysicrates is a circular building, of the Corinthian order; about six feet in diameter. The frize is ornamented with bass reliefs, representing the story of Bacchus and the Tyrrhenian pirates. It was built about three hundred and thirty years before the Christian æra, in order to commemorate a triumph which had been gained in the theatre by a chorus of boys. In that age, it was fashionable, among the opulent Athenians, at their own expense, to entertain the public with theatrical exhibitions, and prizes were adjudged to those who excelled. It is, therefore, probable, that Lysicrates had given an entertainment of this kind, and had obtained the prize by the singingboys who appeared in the spectacle, which, from the decorations on the monument, doubtless referred to the achievements of Bacchus. The mistocles gave an entertainment of this kind; and the inscription he erected, to commemorate the applause which he had obtained, recorded, that the tragedy, represented at ins expense, was composed by Phrynichus, and got up by Adimantus.

"Our ideas of the splendour of

the antient nations are, for the most part, exceedingly erroneous, chiefly owing, I conceive, to their being derived from descriptions of temples and palaces; words which, of themselves, always charm up a num ber of gorgeous and unreal fancies. A painter, in giving a view of any occurrence which took place in the streets of ancient Athens, would be regarded as a man of a niggardly imagination, if he attempted to delineate the appearance of the toan with historical fidelity. De Pauw, in his philosophical researches, informs us, on the authority of Aristotle, that the streets were narrow, obstructed with stairs, and the air darkened and confined by overhang. ing balconies. The houses were constructed with timber; and, from the general poverty of the community, we have no reason to imagine that they exhibited any extraordinary elegance of interior arrangement. Were we to judge of the domestic mansions of the English by the cathedrals and the remains of Popish grandeur, we should conclude that the country has greatly declined in magnificence.

"The temple of the winds is still one of the principal curiosities which travellers visit; not, however, on account of its architectural beauty, for little of that can be seen, but as the mosch in which the dancing dervishes exhibit their penitentiary gesticulations. When we went to see this performance, we found preparations made for Lady Hester Stanhope, to be a spectator, as well as for the other British travellers; a circumstance which shews the relaxed temper of Mahomedan bigotry.

"The ceremony began by a num ber of young and old Turks seating themselves in a circle, the chief priest on the one side, and, oppo

site to him, on the other, three men, each with a small kettle-drum, which was beat with a short stick, as the worshippers bent and bowed backward and forward, repeating ejaculations. When this had continued about twenty minutes, they all rose, and, forming a ring, with their arms round each other's necks, slowly moved in a kind of hitching measure, the drums regulating their steps, and timing their exclamations. Their devotion growing more fervent, two sprung from the circle, and, entwining their arms together, began to whirl about with an increasing velocity, till they emulated the swiftness of the fly of a roasting-jack. Their rapidity inflamed the energy of the others, till the whole, pressing to the centre, formed a solid inass, heaving and sounding. The first and cooler parts of the ceremony were irresistibly laughable; and, notwithstanding our utmost efforts to the contrary, not one of the spectators could maintain their gravity: but, as the passion of the penitentials warmed, the Judicrous impressions abated, and once or twice my ear was struck with a few pathetic accents. I could not, however, but remark two performers, evidently mere actors. One of them was a fat fellow, who seemed to have cherished the growth of his hair, in order that when flying dishevelled as he whirled, it might make the finer shew. The other was a dainty looking body, who dandled himself so prettily in the dance, that it was as impossible to believe that he did not think of the figure he was making, as to look at him with a grave face. We remained about an hour in the Temple, and, when we left it, the dancers were not tired.

"Passing from the height on

which the court of the Areopagus was held, and of which the form of seats and steps, cut out of the solid rock, still remain, travellers, before ascending the Museum-hill, are conducted to see two small excavated chambers, said to have been the prison where Socrates was confined, and died. The death of this philo sopher is justly held one of the greatest stains on the character of the ancient Athenians. But the sin is of daily occurrence. The opi nions which Socrates inculcated were at variance with the existing institutions of the nation; and, to attack subversively what the laws. hallow and support, whether good or bad, will ever be a political offence. Persecution is the natural re-action of reformation. Reform-. ers should consider the martyrdom to which they expose themselves as part of the means by which the establishment of their doctrines is to be accomplished.

"Philosophers profess, in their very title, not only to tolerate the opinions of others, but to consider discussion as the right and privilege of man; and it is commonly thought, that only statesmen and ecclesiastics yield to the instigations of bigotry. The bringing of the Apostle Paul, however, before the tribunal that condemned Socrates, is a proof that there is something in the spirit of incorporation which destroys the very principle of philosophy. For Paul was not persecuted at Athens by the clergy, who had their emoluments and immunities put to hazard by the promulgation of his doctrines, nor by the magistrates, who were bound to protect the priesthood in their possessions and enjoyments, but by the Stoics and Epicureans, who called themselves lovers of truth. They accused him

as

as a setter forth of new opinions; and, because they could not refute, they endeavoured to destroy.

"But the philosophers themselves were, in the end, destined to suffer the retribution due to their intolerance. Athens, in the third century after the preaching of Paul, was sacked by the Goths; and it was proposed to the general to burn the libraries. · No,' said he, let us spare the books; for, as long as the Greeks are devoted to them, they will not trouble us as soldiers. The contemptuous liberality of the barbarian was followed, in the sixth century, by the suppression of the philosophical schools.

"From that period a long oblivious blank of seven hundred unmarked and uninteresting years is found in the Athenian history.

"After the taking of Constantinople, by the Marquis of Monserrat, in the year 1201, the territory of Athens and Thebes, united, were erected into a dukedom, and given to Otho de la Roche, a nobleman of Burgundy, who had followed the standard of the marquis. It remained in his family during the life-time of his son, and two grandsons. After their death, the ducal Sovereignty was transferred to the French family of Briennes, by the marriage of the heiress to the elder branch of that race.

"Walter de Brienne, the son of this marriage, succeeded to the dutchy of Athens, and reduced above thirty of the neighbouring petty lords to his vassalage. In his time the Catalans, who, under the name of the great company, had terrified the inhabitants of Constantinople, retiring from Thrace, passed through Macedonia into Thessaly. Walter de Brienne, alarmed by their approach, and the rumour of their devastations, prepared an army; and

advanced against them to the banks of the Kephissus with seven hundred knights, six thousand four hundred cavalry, and eight thousand infantry; a force equal in number to the greatest efforts of the Athenian republic in the best days of its glory. The Catalans amounted only to three thousand cavalry, and four thousand infantry; but, notwithstanding the inferiority of their number, they so surprized him by stratagems, and assaulted him with their weapons, that his army was completely routed, and himself slain. Then, taking the city, they expelled his family.

"His son, the titular Duke of Athens, constable of France, fell, not long after, in the memorable battle of Poictiers. The Catalans married themselves to the wives and daughters of the slain; and, for fourteen years, under their sway, Athens was once more the terror of all Greece. Falling into factious divisions, in order to allay the consequent turbulences, they were induced to acknowledge the sovereignty of the house of Arragon; and, during the fourteenth century, Attica was a province of the kings of Sicily, by whom it was betowed on the Acciaoli, a family of Florentine extraction.

"By the Acciaoli, Athens regained a faint but ineffectual lustre. They embellished her with new edifices, and she became the capital of a state whose jurisdiction extended over Thebes, Argos, Corinth, Delphi, and a part of Thessaly. In 1456, this temporary glory and independence was destroyed by Mahomet the Second, who strangled the last of the dukes, and educated his children in the religion and discipline of the seraglio. About the middle of the last century, the Athenians obtained for their supe

rior the chief eunuch of Constantinople; and, since that time, it continues to be governed by a Turk, who farms the revenue from that officer, and by eight primates, distinguished for their empty pride and sinister principles. The remains

of its ancient splendour are still objects of admiration; and it will, probably, long be venerated as a sacred shrine, to which the votaries of science and knowledge make occasional pilgrimage.

THE

HE extent and grandeur of this famous metropolis have been greatly exaggerated. Instead of being, according to some travellers, twenty English miles in circumference, I doubt if it be near twelve, Were the port, with the channel of the Bosphorus, reduced to the breadth of the Thames, perhaps, with all Galata, Pera, and Scutari, Constantinople would not be equal to two-thirds of London; and it is not, like London, surrounded with a radiance of villages.

"In order not to give way, without some countenance of fact, to an opinion so contrary to the received, I left my lodgings near the Austrian palace, walked to the artillery barracks opposite to the seraglio point, and embarked, for the purpose of making the circuit of the city. I was rowed down to the Sultan's shambles, below the Castle of the Seven Towers; landed there; and, walking leisurely, along the outside of the walls, to the harbour, I embarked a second time, and was again put ashore at the Arsenal, from which I walked home. Deducting stoppages, it appeared, that the circuit of Constantinople, the seraglio, and gardens, with all that part of the barbour which is occu

pied by the trading-vessels, the town of Galata, and a considerable part of Pera, was made in little more than three hours and a half. The boats were not rowed with any remarkable speed; the wind was contrary, in going to the Seven Towers; and the badness of the road and pavements obliged me to walk very slowly.

Population. The population of Constantinople has been as much over-rated as the dimensions. Those who visit only the bazars must fall into a great error; for the appearance in them fully answers the ideas that are commouly entertained of the population. In the upper parts of the town, and in the streets not leading immediately to the markets of merchandize and provisious, there is no bustie, but, in many places, an air of desolation.

In

"In southern climates, as the handicraftsmen work in open shops, a greater proportion of the inhabi tants are visible, than with us. Constantinople, the workshops are generally open to the streets. Considering the stir in Palermo, the height of the buildings, and the huddling manner in which the major part of the inhabitants live there, and comparing them with the

appear