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CHAPTER V.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUED-ATHENS-MISTRA-THE MOREA-SPARTA

-THE EGEAN SEA-CONSTANTINOPLE.

LANDING at the harbour of the Piræus, Leila and her father lingered to contemplate the lovely islands anchored off in the blue gean, the gulf and rock of Salamis, the ancient Sunium, the chain of marble mountains which inclose the plain of Attica, the temples of Phidias on the top of the Acropolis, the olive groves of the Academus, immortalized by Plato and his disciples; and then slowly drove into the city of Athens.

"Visited the Acropolis," (we quote from Leila), "the beautiful, venerable and hoary Acropolis, with its magnificent ruins. Thence I turned to the Parthenon, and with my eye fixed upon its mouldering but majestic desolation, I reclined in the delicious shadow of the temple of Erichtheus. There I sat for hours,-looking upon its fallen columns, which in immense blocks, were scattered upon the pavement by the side of its broken capitals.

"On a piece of ruin before me sat a Grecian girl, whose picturesque costume, in my imagination, added much to the poetry of the scene. On the crown of her head she wore the close, red cap of Albania. Her temples were bound by a rich muslin turban, elegantly tied by a costly band set with pearls, and from thence it depended almost to the shoulder, the end being finished by a tassel. Her dark hair, enwreathed with pearls, fell

A loose robe, open in

in thick ringlets upon her neck. front, was negligently thrown across her shoulders, leaving her wrists (on which she wore bracelets) and part of her arms bare. Beneath this was a gown of striped silk, and white stockings and yellow shoes completed her elegant attire. Her look was pensive, with somewhat of melancholy, but very intellectual, clearly indicating a mind superior to that of Greek women in general; and—I can scarcely tell why-but I felt for her such an affectionate interest, such a desire for intimate communion of soul, as quite oppressed me when I reflected it could not be.

"From contemplating the Parthenon, I turned to the Propylea, and the temple of Erechtheus, and of the Caryatides all of these are close to the Parthenon. But majestic as they are-magnificent as they are, the mind is incapable of receiving their adequate impressions through comparison with the great majesty itself. In the contemplation of that, the soul has expended all its strength-it is full of the true emotions of sublimity, and has no chord left to be excited by the others. As I gazed upon these great and almost superhuman efforts of genius, I was transported in admiration and praise of that great and lovely Being who is the source of all mind, whom to know is the highest wisdom, whom to serve is happiness, whom to love is heaven. O, that all this may be the experience of my soul! I do not despair. The hand of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save. He will lead my ignorant, guilty, soul to drink of the fountains of repose. He will teach me. O, I am sometimes quite animated with hope! My trust is in God, I shall yet praise him: soon he shall arise

upon my soul, and his glory, yes, his glory shall scatter this night, which prevents my knowing or doing anything aright, and I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. In a spiritual sense, I do record it, that at the present moment, I am more happy than usual. I can confidently rely upon the divine direction in those momentous considerations which now engross my mind.

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"In the midst of the ruins of what was once Athens, rises a precipitous mountain. It is surrounded by enormous walls. At their base, they are constructed of fragments of white marble; higher up, with ruins of columns and broken friezes. Its summit, which is levelled to receive the foundation of temples of the gods, contains an area of perhaps, upwards of a hundred thousand square feet. From its top is obtained one of the most beautiful views of all the space which was ancient Athens, and the country which surrounded it-divested, indeed, of most of its gorgeous splendour, its thousand temples fallen to decay, the great wall of the Piraeus broken and mouldering into dust, the magnificent Parthenon mutilated and destroyed by Venetian cannon, the slopes of yon beautiful amphitheatre of mountains, once clothed in forests, in pastures, in groves of vines, and citron, and oranges, and olives, in towns and villages-all, all desolate and depopulated; but notwithstanding this, one glance over to that lovely horizon, the recollection of which since I saw it, has haunted me both awake and asleep-one glance on the glorious colouring of the scene, will fill the soul with emotions most deep, noble, and sublime.

"With a heart beating quick from association and memory, you take a first hasty look-are overpowered by the comparison of ancient and modern Athens-of the city and surrounding country when Plato stood, and taught, and admired on that very spot where you now stand, and its persent ruin and decay. You imagine for a moment, that you see the port of Phalerus, the harbour of the Piræus, the sea of Athens, and the gulf of Corinth, as in ancient times, covered with forests of masts, and snowy sails, and proud flags, trembling in the classic air; that you hear the murmurs of the busy tribe within the mighty capital, and the sound of the sonorous hammer as it detaches the huge blocks of marble, from the quarries of Pentelicus; that you see the people pressing in a waving mass towards the very place where you are now seated, to burn incense and offer sacrifice to their imaginary deities; that you hear the declaim of the mighty orator, and the plaudits of the delighted audience. You feel what you have imagined; and then look again, and behold the present solitude and ruin— you turn away weeping. Let your tears flow! the ground is consecrated to remembrance.

"This relieves you, and while you feel the past you are enabled to contemplate the present beauty of the scene. You see the hills which formed the ancient Athenian soil, the course of the now exhausted Ilissus, the scanty Cephisus,* the valleys of Pentelicus, the plain of the Piræus, the range of valleys and towering mountain crests which conceal Marathon, and stretch away to the Acropolis of Corinth, and the lovely Ægean,

* Cephisus' stream is indeed scanty; the Ilissus has no stream at all.

with its romantic islands, Salamis and Ægina, on the top of which is the Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius. The whole presents such an assemblage of beautiful objects, of the wonders of nature and art, such sublimity of colouring, such perfection of beautiful and inimitable perspective, as neither the imagination can conceive, nor the memory recollect anything like it.

"How poor and laborious is the effect, when that which should strike as a whole upon the sense, is detailed in parts! We may tell of the rippling ocean streaked with shadows of the richest purple, its hoary crested waves tipped with the effulgent lights of the sunbeam; of islands floating upon its surface, some in the distance dimly seen through golden mists, and looking as though they belonged to an ethereal creation; others bright and clear, their naked rocks and precipices varied by verdant mosses and brilliant tints-orange, red, gray; we may add to this, a description of glowing summits, themselves more intensely azured than the sky against which they repose; of marble columns and ruined temples, beaming with radiance effulgent as the sun, yet exquisitely relieved by deeper shadows, and most lovely colours; we may tell all this, and more than this, and yet after all, how ineffectual are the ideas conveyed by such a picture!"

Engaging a body guard of hardy Mainiotes, they left Athens, and entered the Morea by the Isthmus of Corinth. With an intention to visit Lacedæmon, they proceeded in the direction of Mount Taygetus, and in a short time arrived at Mistra, a beautiful little town, situate at the commencement of its acclivity.

"Our drive into Mistra," writes Leila, "was de

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