ages, have accumulated, are perhaps the more likely on that account to afford a valuable result.

Of the three great branches of art in which the ancients peculiarly excelled, little can be discovered at this distance of time in the more perishable art of painting. Some new proofs may perhaps yet reach us of their having been at least our equals in design; but as to their proficiency in the other attributes of painting, we can scarcely hope to obtain any very satisfactory information.

Although modern Europe has produced many fine works of sculpture since the revival of the arts in Italy, it will hardly be denied that the discovery of some of the productions of the great masters of the fifth and fourth centuries before the Christian æra, would add extremely to our materials of improvement in this branch of art. In considering, that, while there is no end to the examples of ancient perfection, afforded by smaller works, such as bronzes, coins, and gems, we have scarcely any undoubted originals of human or larger size, belonging to those favoured ages, with the exception of the marbles of the Æginetan, Athenian, and Phigaleian temples, it must be allowed that the acquisition of some of those numerous works of the ancient masters, which were still untouched in the second century of the Christian æra, and probably much later, would be the most interesting discovery that could occur in sculpture.

But it is particularly in architecture that we need the guidance of the Greeks. By following the modern Italians, who took for their models corrupted Roman imitations of Greek architecture, a style was introduced into England, which, having prevailed for

about two centuries, has not been much corrected in the course of the half century during which we have enjoyed a knowledge of the genuine architecture of the Greeks, by means of the drawings which have been published of the antiquities of Athens, Ionia, Magna Græcia, and Sicily.

The more we examine the buildings of the ancients, the stronger do the proofs appear of that profound study which they bestowed upon this most useful and ornamental of arts. Nor is their taste and judgment less conspicuous in the application of their rules according to circumstances of place and occasion; which some recent examples show to be not more easy of attainment than the rules themselves.

There are few problems more difficult of solution than to find a sufficient reason for the perfection which the Greeks attained in the elegant arts, and for its wide diffusion among them during several centuries. Something may be attributed to the more acute perceptions, to the more beautiful forms and colours of animate and inanimate nature, and to the brighter skies of a southern climate. Something more may be ascribed to circumstances from which we are happy to be exempt; such as the eager collision of rivalry between small independent states, the excitement given to the imagination, and the encouragement afforded to the display of its powers by a mythology closely allied to the senses, and which gave the honours of divinity to the productions of the artist. Even with these advantages, to arrive at the productions of the age of Pericles required several centuries of trials and improvements, during which extreme diligence

was applied by a series of gifted men to one pursuit, which, when successful, obtained as much worldly fame and advantage as that of arms, or of the conduct of public affairs. Without such an equalization of the rewards of genius and labour, science, literature, and the arts, are more degraded than encouraged or protected.

SECTION I.

THE DESCRIPTION OF ATHENS BY PAUSANIAS.

As the only detailed description of ancient Athens is found in the work of Pausanias, I shall begin by submitting to the reader a translation of all his information upon the topography of the city ;-. retaining his more important remarks upon the buildings, monuments, and works of art, but omitting the greater part of the history or mythology which he has introduced.

After having described the remains of the maritime city, Pausanias speaks of the two roads, which led from thence to Athens, in the following terms:

"In the road which leads to the city from Pha- Cap. 1. lerum there is a temple of Juno, without doors, and without a roof. It is reported to have been burnt by Mardonius, son of Gobrias'. The statue which it now contains is said to be the work of Alcamenes. At the entrance into the city' is the tomb of An- Cap. 2. tiope the Amazon. The Athenians possess likewise a tomb of Molpadia 3.

1

Pausanias (Phocic. 35, 2) again mentions this half-burnt temple on the Phalerie road (ἐπὶ ὁδῷ τῇ Φαληρικῇ).

* Εσελθόντων ἐς τὴν πόλιν.

* The Athenian tradition adopted by Pausanias (in this place, and in 15, 2) was, that Antiope had been brought to Athens as a