metaphysical investigation; there are lions in the way that few men are willing to encounter. We believe he has the truth on his side, and a most frank and honest heart in pursuing it, though, if he adopts the refinements of the second theory above noticed as his own,-with some little mixture of error. The truth is of the highest importance, and there are critical vultures enough to pounce upon the error, if once they find that the truth is attracting notice. It surely will, for these investigations deserve all the attention that their author asks for them. There are some persons whose nature makes it impossible that they should come to such speculations except with the very spirit which Professor Tappan deprecates; but no matter for that; time is a great and impartial friend, and God is greater; trusting to whom no man need have his temper ruffled or his ardor cooled in the pursuit of truth.

"I ask," says Professor Tappan," that no one will meet arguments advanced in no spirit of partisanship, with the eager zeal of such a spirit: and that, as I have arrayed myself under the banner of no great leader in the schools of philosophy or theology, so also that I may not be either honored or anathematized by the application of his name. I have sought for truth independently, as I had a right to do: I have published my results, as I had a right to do: and I cheerfully take upon me all the responsibility which fairly attaches to the proceeding."

Ora, et labora! Continue to trust in the "divine power and quiet majesty of truth," though still, if need be," without patronage and without defence." In speculations on the will there is danger of growing misanthropic. A man who deserves well of the public is very apt to think the public ungrateful towards him; but alas! men are still more neglectful of the truth than of him who proposes it. We often think of that beautiful colloquy, which Coleridge once wrote, and we believe almost impromptu, and we shall take the liberty to close with it, in the full and sad conviction that there is no degeneracy more common in this world-worshipping age and community, than that of making greatness and goodness means instead of ends.

How seldom, friend! a good great man inherits
Honor or wealth, with all his worth and pains!
It sounds like stories from the land of spirits,

If any man obtain that which he merits,
Or any merit that which he obtains.

REPLY.

For shame, dear friend! renounce this canting strain.
What wouldst thou have a good great man obtain?
Place? Title? Salary? A gilded chain?

Or throne of corses, which his sword hath slain?
Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends !
Hath he not always treasures, always friends,

The good great man? Three treasures, Love and Light,
And calm Thoughts, regular as an infant's breath!
And three firm friends, more sure than day and night,
Himself, his Maker, and the Angel Death.

ARTICLE VIII

ANCIENT AND MODERN GREECE.*

ATHENS AND ATTICA; Journal of a Residence there. By the Rev. Christopher Wordsworth, M. A., Fellow of Trinity College; Head Master of Harrow School, &c. John Murray, London. A Short Visit to the Ionian Islands, Athens, and the Morea. By Edward Gifford, Esq., of Pemb. Coll., Oxon. A. & W. Galignani, Paris.

UNTIL quite recently, the difficulties to one visiting Greece were such as to deter the great mass of foreign travellers from making the attempt. Whoever advanced beyond the generally understood limits of the "grand tour," and found his way to the land where the stolid Moslem kept guard over the sacred remains of ancient art, received credit for some classical enthusiasm, a profound sympathy with antiquity, and much of the earnest and reverential spirit which Pliny, speaking of the same land, recommends to his friend Maximus: "Cogita, te missum in provinciam Achaiam, illam veram et meram Greciam, in qua primum humanitas, literæ, etiam fruges, inventæ esse creduntur. **** Reverere gloriam veterem, et hanc ipsam senectutem, quæ in homine venerabilis, in urbibus sacra est. Sit apud te honor antiquitate, sit ingentibus factis, sit fabulis quoque."

*We regret that we are not allowed to give the name of the writer of this review. It is from the pen of a professor in one of the colleges of New England, who has himself visited the scenes which he describes, and whose personal observation, as well as his previous classical research, gives to his representations a freshness and an author. ity, which greatly enhance their interest and value.-ED.

At present the obstacles to the traveller are few, the facilities many, and yearly on the increase. Twice every month a steam packet leaves Falmouth for Gibraltar, Malta, Corfu and Alexandria. Three times a month, the French government steamboats leave Marseilles for the ports of Italy, Malta, Athens, Constantinople and Alexandria. Austrian boats from Trieste come down the Adriatic, encircle the Morea, and rest in the Bosphorus, and still other companies ply their diligent vessels between the different ports of the Archipelago and the Levant; so that even an American scholar might make a pretty satisfactory tour in Greece without greatly lengthening his annual vacation or deranging his ordinary occupations.

"Having been medically advised," says Mr. Gifford in his introduction, " to pass a couple of months of the last winter [1837] in a more southern climate, and particularly recommended to begin by a sea voyage, the facilities which steam communication now affords of navigating the Mediterranean, and the hope of being able to combine the main object of health with the gratification of an ardent desire to visit the classical scenes of Greece, determined me and Mr. Newtona college friend, and unfortunately a fellow sufferer-to direct our course that way."

Within three months they had made the voyage, had visited the most interesting parts of the country, had suffered the detention of quarantine, and reached England again in safety. The plain and truthful narrative which he has presented of" what he was enabled to see," possesses an interest and value far above that of many sketches written with greater pretensions.

The "Journal" of Mr. Wordsworth is of a more learned character, and must be chiefly interesting to scholars, as illustrating by frequent quotations and delicate criticisms, the ancient classics. It is our intention to use both of these works, which we have not seen republished in America, to give our readers some insight into the present condition of Greece and its antiquities.

In less than three weeks after leaving England, the packet in which Mr. Gifford and his fellow traveller had embarked, anchored in Patras Roads; but as this was not her final destination, the anchor was weighed the next morning and the boat stood on to Corfu. As a warning to future travellers, Mr. Gifford mentions that had they landed at Patras and commenced the tour of the Morea immediately, a week of precious time might have been saved. As it was, they began their observations

with the scenes of the Odyssey, and the capital of the Ionian Republic, Corfu.

"We were on a sea and amongst islands and shores celebrated from the earliest dawn of classical poetry. *** The scenes of the first travels, of which there exists even a mythological record, were before us -we were in the regions of the Odyssey. *** We soon reached the narrow channel, about four miles wide and sixteen long, which divides Ithaca and Cephalonia; the latter is tolerably cultivated, but not (at least in this view) pretty; but for the other-alas! we, like former travellers, could not help feeling something like vexation at finding the island of Ulysses the most barren spot we ever beheld. For the whole length of the island, scarce a shrub or blade of grass was to be seen; and one might be tempted to attribute the long absence of Ulysses less to the adverse fates than to his good taste." Giffard p. 32.

Running on by Cape Viscardo, and then by Santa Maura or Leucadia," the gigantic headstone over the watery grave of poor Sappho," they cast anchor at midnight in the harbor of Corfu.

"Beautiful! I exclaimed, when, early next morning, I saw Corfu ; and my exclamation was in the superlative, most beautiful! when I became better acquainted with it. The roadstead, or rather bay, is completely land-locked; surrounded on three sides by the island, and on the other by the main land, with only narrow exits to the north and south, not visible from the harbor itself.

The opposite coast of Albania, the fortifications of the island of Vido; the citadel of Corfu, built on two precipitous rocks running out into the sea; the palace of the Lord High Commissioner (or as he is styled in common parlance the Lord High); the town itself, and the distant mountains of the island, form a splendid panoramic view."

'p. 35.

Corfu is the capital of the Republic of the Ionian Islands and under the protection (i. e. power) of Great Britain. The immense fortifications form another of those strong points which England has obtained in the four quarters of the world; one of those three stations in the Mediterranean which give the rule of that great sea to the English.

On a visit to the Lord High's country seat, the travellers say, we could not but remark the similarity of the scenery to that described by Homer, through which Ulysses, a stranger like ourselves, sought the abode of the Lord High of his day.

At length he took the passage to the wood,

Whose shady honors on a rising brow

Waved high and frowned upon the stream below, etc. Odys. v. 475.

The exactness of these local portraits, and especially the sail of Ulysses [a rock which, from the harbor, has the appearance of a sail], are, it must be admitted, strongly in favor of the general opinion of the identity of Scheria and Corfu. Indeed, if the common opinion be correct, hereabout might be the site of the celebrated garden of Alcinous, which-although it seems to have been only a fruit and kitchen garden-Homer describes as being surrounded by natural beauties of the kind we saw before us."

After eight days spent at Corfu the packet took them again to Patras, where they landed on the shores of the Morea. For the sum of twelve dollars a boat was hired to take them to Corinth, stopping a day at Scala de Salona, in order to allow time to visit Delphi. We can afford but a brief space to extracts, but will copy a short account of the visit to the ancient fountain of the Muses.

"The next morning was very fine, and having ordered our horses the preceding evening, we started for Parnassus at six o'clock, but certainly none of the steeds resembled Pegasus, or perhaps, indeed, the whole story of Pegasus may be an allegory to convey a plain truth, that to get over such roads horses would have need of wings. Just before we arrived at Delphi, we saw several ancient tombs, excavated from the rock, on either side of the path: they are chiefly single, but one we entered had been the last resting place of three persons. On passing through a rudely arched doorway, we found ourselves in a chamber with a sarcophagus on either side, and a third in front; over each was a small niche in the wall for a lamp or figure; the covers were gone, and there was nothing to be seen within but the stone pillars for the heads of the deceased. Delphi is situated some five or six miles up the sides of the mountain range which, about eight or ten miles farther, terminates in the summit of Parnassus; but Delphi, contrary to the received opinion, has little local connection with Parnassus, properly so called, and is not even in sight of it. ***The general aspect of the village proved the accuracy of Pausanius' description of the site of the ancient town; it is built on terraces of masonry, rising above one another in regular gradation, and having all the features of great antiquity. On the right, as you enter the village, are the foundation walls of an old temple, forming a square of about one hundred yards each way, in the centre of which stands a miserable Greek church, dedicated I believe to St. Elias. Advancing from this we entered the village, and having put up our horses, were guided first to to the amphitheatre, an immense work, whose seats, hollowed out of the rock, are still almost perfect; thence to the Castalian Spring, which rises at the foot of what have been so long celebrated as the double peaks of Parnassus; but in fact, as I have said, the summit of Parnassus, properly so called, is some miles off, and not even visible, being concealed by a bare precipitous rock, which rises immediately behind the fountain, one hundred or