The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-01-29

STRANGE on the part Of one Of his friends, who
said that the sun is declining In the valley, yet
sns n az ss a.. ne
surrounding hills and found that dark IS Il was in
the valley the sun was still shining the top Of
the hill, aud this fact established the truth OF the
! Socrates died. ~ -Mt9 90 Fasla
| Mars Hill, whore the Court of the Areopagas
sat, was to every Christian place Of triumph. It
mere st. Pan was invited a ~ sns pao
| tell them more at length Of the truths he taught
aud IT was here that christianity stood che test OF
| all the scrutiny that science aud philosophy could
bring TO bear upon II, and where even at tas early
day, the simple recital caused some OF the rst men
Of Athens, among whom was Dyonisius, one of the
members Of that famous court, to espouse and cling
s Of the ae w ssSrsS oS,
spiritual purposes sadly treated the splendid Grafton
there pronounced. The translation makes st. Paul
commence his Grafton with deliberate insult to the
intelligence Of his hearers, while proper rendering
would show that st. Paul was gentleman as well as
christian scholar, which some teachers Of these
great truths are not. S54R 1Hft9.
Thus closed one of the most brilliant lectures of
the season in the Smithsonian Institution. The au
dence was one of the largest of the season, and
among them were many members Of Congress. The
course of Professor Chace was interrupted to make
room for this lecture, and which was announced
very suddenly Professor FELTON, being in the CITY on
business. 1t will long be remembered by all who
beard it, and the man as well as the subject will
often be thought Of In connection with the classics
The Fine Arts In Athens.
Mr.. Thomas Francis Meagher lectured ON the
above subject before the "Touro Literary Inst
tute,' in the Tabernacle, Broadway, last evening,
and was eminently successful. A little before 8
o'clock Mr.. Meagher came forward and was received
with much applause. He proceeded to deliver an
eloquent discourse, of which the following Is sy-
nopsis. He said -
The end Of art in Greece was that of engraving
on the hearts of the citizens an abiding faith j
their duty to the gods, and q pervading sense Q.
their obligations to the State Her religious festi.
political Institutions conduced to the developement
Of her truly popular arts Babylon, and Persia,
and Egypt were lands of bondage, in which the in
dyidualty of manhood was swallowed IN in inexora-
BILE castles. But Greece was the land-the only
land--Of human freedom and human dignity. This
favored people first fashioned gods for themselves who
pleased their fancies and fattered their pride Having
decked them with the trappings OF scnlptural
skill, they informed them with their own IDEAS
thoughts and passions. Then came the law of scep-
ticsm, in which the Grecian people plucked their
gods from the pride of place, and in the statues of
their heroes, their poets and their sages, planted
themselves on the marble pedestal to receive. as
they have received, the homage OF the world. Next
to her statuary, the grandcst Development of her
mind is manifested in the architecture of Athens.
When Athens had grasped the crown Of intellectual
sovereignty, and proudly set it on her brow; when
her people, in the proud assertion Of their political
sovereignty, exercised it in fierce and almost lawess
measure, architecture had become with her the ex-
position of the grandest ideas and most generous
pirations. 1t consecrated the spot where a whole
people confessed their solemn relations to the Din
ity. The PLyx, at the base Of which the Athenian
democracy listened to the discussions of their
tors aud uttered the DEGREES Of their sovereign will
commanded the whole space between the towers OF
Pilaus and the foot of the Acropolis; whilst from
the summit Of the Acropolis the temple Of tho
guardian goddess looked down in protection
on the noble exercise-eyen the noble madness
Of popular power. This nice perception of art-skl
fully used by the orators in attering the instincts of
the multitude-had something most beautiful and
noble in its application. Architecture among the
Athenians as he had said, was especially connected
with religion and with the State was specially de-
forms of their temples, like other forms Of art the
Athenians had borrowed from the Egyptians; but
the characteristics OF Egyptian ar-the solid masses
and the colossal figures the Athenians had turned
into light proportions and graceful ornaments. The
monuments Of each people bore the impress of their
peculiar characters. The architecture of Egypt
Of the despoiism by which, as the sands by the py
ranlid, its political sterity was Swallowed But the
architecture of Greece architecture breathing
with poetry and music appealing to the genial sym.
mortal expression of the purest tastes well the
noblest sentiments of freedom. There is the Sphinx
-immobility, superstition, inexorable tyranny!
There is the Minervahe, liberty, intelligence and
the pursuit Of happiness. The ideas which asso-
ciate themselves with these vesiges of the past re-
solve themselves into pictures in harmonious keeping
with the rules we contemplate. Far back in the ages,
made urd by the altar of Abraham we hear the stroke
OF the axe, sounding on the SUBMITS of Lebanon. We
zee the burdcned car numbering on the road from
Joppa to Jerusalem, bearing along the cedar, the
marble, and the brass We catch the CLEAN Of the
dye, the Sidonan silk. ALI are tributes to the Tenn
pie, whereof the Cherubims were of gold, and the
wings Of the Cherub were ten cubits from one ex.
tIenliy to the other, and the Cherub was Swallowed
with the olive and the palm. Where was the sump-
tuous structure nowl The Assyrian had swept over
it. The legions OF Rome had flung its lingering
splendors to the devouring torch. Nay on its frag
ments, on its holy dust, was seen at this day the
foot Of the infdel who, backed by Christian dogs,
still uttered there the language Of foul anaticsm.
Yet to the very stones of that Temple still chung the
remembrance of nations; still chung the imperisha-
pleme idea, once symbolized in the harmonies and
spendors Of an architecture devised by the Supreme
Intelligence itself. AT every period OF history they
could discern the meaning and application Of the
fine arts. Passing under the arches Of Titus; mus
ing in the deep gloom of the Colosseum; or treading
the dust where lie the Capitone stairs; they read in
glance the history of the Seven Hillsthe virtues,
the struggles, the riots the splendors the gnomnies
the triumphs, the vices, the sublimties Of the Ro
man race And SO with Athens To the eye of the idle
dawdling, fashionable tourist, the Parthenon and
the Propyaa are merely, as he pencils in his note
book, tic iuins Of aremarkabe pile of buildings
q very remarkable pile Of buildings. But to the
scholai-to the republican scholar, above all-they
tower the tropfied and triumphal results Of Mara
thon and Salamis. He knows-the republican scho
lar knows-that, long before the Parthenon had
spread its perfect beauties to the rich sunshine OF
Attica-before Propyl@a had opened their storied
avenues to the genial breezes Of the Kgean Sea-
Athens had had her Miltiades and her Cmon-and
that the patriotism which had nerved the heroism
of the former, and had fred the eloquence of the
latter, had also kinded tie genius of the architect
and artist to commemorate their deeds aud eter
nalize their fame. Behold the difference between
Sparta and Athens Sparta had spurned all
the arts, except the iron art IT war. Had not
the hand OF God reared the architecture Of the
mountains at Thermopy lara In vain would the ira
weller seek for the place where heroism had, with
with its led sword, marked the spot for as noble o
monument as ever rose to heaven in aitestation of
human worth. Unlike Athens, out OF her ruins
she prepared no eternal tomb for herself. Sparta
gJoomy, silent and memorable, dies without monu
ment. Athens-like the divine Niobe, surrounded