The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1858-06-03
BAYAhb TAYLOR IN ATHENS.


his eagle eye from the high North to South
crn Europe. He is now at Athens. In as
cending to the Acropois he braced his sen
sibilities, he says, with the following sub
stantial reflections:
,"Iou are now going up the Same steps
where Pericles walked, said Francois, No
only Periclcs, but the curlcd Alcibades, the
serene Plato, the unshaken Socrates, the di
vine Phidias, Soph 'cles, and -Eschylus
lIerodotus, and Themistoclcs, and-but
why mention names, when the full sunshine
of that immortal era streams upon our path.
way? Aud what ls it to me that they have
walked where now walk! Let me not Be
whecdled out Of my comfortable indiffer-
ence by the rythmitic ringing Of sucll
names.
"The traveller comes here expecting to he
impressed by the associations Of the spot
and 10y a strong effort lie succeeds in i'm
pressing himself. Repeat the same names
elsewhere, and he will produce the same ef-
feet. But for me, am hardened against
conventional sentiment. | have seen too
much to he easily moved; can resist the
magic of ancient memories, no matter how
classic. What is it to me that Periclcs
walked up these stcrs--,hat the giIled robes
of Aspasia swept up these pentcican slabs
that Phidias saw the limbs Of a god in
the air, Or Sophoclcs clantcd a chorus as
lie wakcd2 They were men, and l am Il
man too; probably, in many respects, as
good as they. Had / lived in tller time,
should, no doubt, have looked upon them
without the slightest awe-have slapped
them on the back, and in:itcd them to din
ncr. Now, why should their ghosts make
me shake with weak emotion, and rob me
of my cool judgmcnt' No; shall be
Indifferent"
So mcditating, lie walked up the steps.
But when he got up. his solid resolutions
vanished. His sturdy iscnti,nciltalizing
was all 10 no purpose. The glorious Athens
OF the soul lowered around him and lay
spread out beneath linn. lie says.
"Thc pil.rcd portal, one colonnalc ris-
ing above another, us the rock ascends, now
received us. Capitals aud architravcs are
gone, except those of the last rank, and
huge blocks of the superb marble lie heap
ell in the passages between the columns.
Beautiful as these are, lightly as their taper
ing stems rise against the blue vault, the
impression created by the Propylon is cheer
full and clcva,ing. And when you turn,
looking down through the hutcd vista, over
the Arcopagus, over the long plain CT the
Cephisus: shimmcring silvery with the olive
groves of the Academy, TO the pass of the
Daphne and the blue liIl Of Sala,nis, you
feel no longer the desolatiou Of ruin, but
inhale, with quiet enjoyment, the perfect
harmony Of the picture.
"Thc Propylon still fo'ms portal which
divides two worlds. You leave modern
and medieval associations behind YOU, and
are alone with the past. Over the ramp
arts Of the Acropolis, you see no more of
the mountains or the distant -1;yean Island
than the oldest Greek-largc outlines, sim
pie tnts, and no object distinct enough to
tell whether it be new OF old. The last of
the portals is passed you arc OH tho s,.lm
nit, alone with tic parthenon. You need
no pointing finger; your eye turns nstinc-
lively, to where it stands. Over heaps of
suin, over plain buried under huge frag-
n,cnts of hewn and sulpturcd marble
drums of pillars; pedestaIs, capitals, corn ccs
friezes, trygIyphs, and sunken panel work
wilderness of mutilatcd art-it rises be-
tween you and the sky, which forms its only
background, and against which every scar
left by the in6del generation shows its cash.
Broken down to the caftls in the middle,
Ike ship which was struck and parted :,
with the roof, cornices and friczes mostly
gone, and not column unmutatcd and
yet with the tawny gold Of two thousand
years staining its once spo;lcss marble,
sparkling with snow.whitc marks Of shot
and shell, and with soaring pillars imLeded
in the dark blue ether, (,nd here the sky
seems blue only because they need such a
background) you doubt for moment
whether the melancholy of its ruin, or the
perfect and rnnjcstic loneliness which shines
through that ruin, is most powerful.
did not stop to solve this doubt. Once
having looked upon the Parthcnon, it was
impossible to look other where, and drew
nearer and nearer, finding narrow lane
through the chaos of fragments piled almost
as high as my head, until stood below the
western front. looked up at the Dorie
shafts, colossal as beflted tile shrine of q
goddess, yet tender and graceful as fowc,
stems, upholding without effort the massive
entablature and tho shatforod no1;,,,,, :.