aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

CHAPTER XXVin.
ATHENS.
" Dream on sweet souls in purpling seas
Till we reach the land of
Pericles."
In life's golden time, when listening to the
academic declamations
of students upon the heroism of the ancient
Greeks, we dreamed of treading the shores of the classic
land,— land once pre-eminent in poetry, philosophy, painting,
and the fine arts, and whose republics voiced the heavenwinged
words of equality and freedom. But the Greeks of
to-day are ancient Greeks no more. Civilizations move in
cycles and epicycles. The Grecian mind has been tending
downwards for full two thousand years. Its present glory
consists of its ancient ruins. A wizard hand, grayed and
grim, ever points backward to lost arts, lost grandeur
Do we not remember Byron, whose lamp of life faded
.
under the Grecian skies he so
musical his lines —
!
enthusiastically loved ? How
" Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime,
Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle,
Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime ?
*Tis the clime of the East, — tis the land of the Sun
Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done ? "
PirsBus is the prominent port of Greece. Athens is five
miles distant from this landing. There is a railroad. But
here, here, is the once classic city.
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