The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-01-29
G r. E e G &
PruEcssor FeIton's Lecture ON Greece I'm
tn WashiagSon.


ProScssor Felton's Lecture ON Greece I'm
Vm Washiagson.
Professor FELTON,, of Harvard University, deliver
ed one Of his quaint and humorous, pathetic and
pathetic, historical and critical lectures on Greece.
or more properly upon Athens, before the Smith
sonian Institution on last Friday night of which
Washington correspondent renders the following
account
Professor FELTON, was introduced to the large
audience by Professor Henry, the Secretary OF the
Institution. His first act before making his bow was
to have the reading desk removed from the plat
form, thus preventing any obstruction to the vision
of the audience. He is rather corpulent, and from
his small deep sunk eye glistens a fund Of humor
that would render him attractive to any audience.
His style is conversational, and his gestures confined
to bend of the knee and shake Of the head an d
body which is peculiar to himself alone, and thi
renders his lectures still more odd. But with al
this he gives proof Of deep study aud research in
tho classics and the earnest heartfelt bursts Of elo
quence that often appear during his disoourses,
render him the favorite of the ripe scholar as vel
as the idol of popular audience
He commenced by saying that Yankee professors
like to himself visit Washington during this season
that they could revisit their old friend and
associate, Professor Henry; the second, to hear
the words of wisdom a. they dropped from the
lips of their political fathers assembled meath
the classic shades Of the aptol and the last though
not least, that they might escape the rgors Of by
poborean winter In this instance he was somewhat
disappointed in the two latter reasons Congress, it
was true, was assembled, but the combined wisdom,
NJ cif 1xuit nsf hot hcIu
centrated in the useful but to the spectators not
amusing occupation of answering to the call of the
roll. daughter and appause) And 10 the last in
stance he was utterly disappointed. He conld not
better express his sentiments than by quoting the
words of Mlt0ns Satan, somewhat altered, however,
TO suit the circumstances for Satan supposed to
utter them in climate somewhat warmer than this:
Whichever way fly is winter. | myself am win
ter (Applause)
The motto of his evenings discourse he announced
as "Let us go to Athens and with that launched in
to elegant eul0gy upen the character of that city,
Some cities he said, have IN individual character,
clearly defined have poets, painters, scuptors or
orators and Athens he's defined her character fully
and clearly SO that her name, with the names Of Je
rusalem and Rome, cannot be heard without sending
thrill through the heart Of the patriot the states
man, or the scholar. Jerusalem was the home of
the PsalInist it was the of the rise of chris
tianty, and the site OF more peculiar associations,
which cannot be mentioned without filing the heart
with awe. Rome became the mistress of the world;
cation would not sustain her. She needed educa-
tor, and had that educator been Athens she might
still have retained her title.
But what emotions does not the mention of
Athens inspire? Athens-the Greece of Greece,
the Helos OF Helos, the little city OF less than
100000 inhabitants at any time, but whose painters
produced works which have lived in history to this
day; which produced statuary, specimens of which,
even in their mutilated condition, are so highly
valued as models that modern sculptors Of all ma
tons expatriate themselves, and set down amid
political institutions odious to them that they may
study under the shades Of the splendid ruins, and
study how they may initiate the perfection there
manifested; whose orators obtained for themselves
undyiDg lauIels, and who, II we judge from the
mutilated fragments Of their speeches. handed down
to us, were thoroughly versed in all the wisdom and
sagacity Of craftsmanship and patriotism, and who
never were surpassed by the orators Of any nation,
and never equalled, except by the Massachusetts,
statesman, who now rests In his ocean home near
Marshfeld; whose poets are only equalled by Shaks
peare; whose historians have been held up as an
example to modern writers, among which was the
History Of the Peloponesian War;" by Thucidides,
which the aged Earl OF Chatham placed in the hand
Of his son, William Pitt, as he was about entering
Cambridge University, as the eternal manual o
the statesman" which produced the schools @
Plato and Aristotle, who have handed down their
been built all the theories and specuatons that have
arisen since their time! What emotions are not felt
by the statesman the poet, the scholar the man. as
he hears the name OF the city which gave rise to all
we have never attained, and which gave rise to an
influence of refinement which has reached this age!
The speaker now gave description of the city OF
Athens, which he illustrated by ground plan pre-
Acropols, which he thought was originally built by
some chieftain as fortifcation and that the city
was formed by the retaners settling around their
chief. Then came description Of the temple of
Theseus and the Egin marbles, and the recent dis
covery of the naval history OF Athens having been
engraved on these marble leaves. Here he took oc.
casion to defend the action Of Lord Elgin, who re-
moved these marbles to England, against the attack
of Lord Byron, as he thought that their removal
alone had saved them from Destruction as the Aero
polls had since then been bombarded by the Vene-
tlans when it was in the hands of the Turks, which
bombardment finally produced the explosion which
overthrow many Of the columns tlat time and the
barbarans had thus far spared. He thought that
this act Of Venice in destroying that which even the
Goths and Vandas had held sacred should be looked
upon with execration by all Christendom.
He gave q humorous account of an attempt he
made to find the river Illyssus, and to experience
the enthusiasm he had anticipated in Standing upon
the banks Of that classic stream, where Socrates had
so often escaped from the tongue OF AantpPe 70 the
more congenial company of the Muses.. Prof. F.
found the river as dry rs himself and so he walked
for quarter of mile along its dry bed till he at
last found small pool OF water, which held perhaps
half tumber full which he reverentialy sc0oped up,
drank, and felt better, as he had drank
from the same stream Of which the poets
sang. But he begged the audience not to
suppose tnat TINS Was tne USUAL cOndlClOll OF tue
classic Inyssus, for in winter its bed was filled by
the rains, and as IL gathered strength it rushed
along furionsly, and often presented the enormous
width Of six feet from bank 70 bank. Uaughter)
was denied the ancients-he found it impossible to
get up any enthusiasm in regard to this classic
stream. daughter and applaase)
The temple Of Olympian Joye, which Is the
which could accommodate the whole free popula'
1ation Of Athens at the same time, where the TRACE
dies of Eschylus and the other Greek cramatists
were enacted at the expense of the government
and the Odeon of Regllia, sort Of mausoleum, and
the Acropolis, with its full length statuary, its
sculptures its basso relieves, &C., by Phidias and his
immediate scholars, were here described by the
help of photographs enlarged.
Speaking Of photographs caused.a slight digrcs-
sion. The speaker thought the sun an excellent
landscape painter, but poor portrait painter; the
sun violated the first rule OF the art which was tn
makea good looking face, and then infaso a. mitch
If l,o cffnr N roSsihlc. The