The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-06-20

ATHENS, GREECE, May. 1878.
81 should have to be much more thorough.
ly wearied than am by my jaunt over the
Acropolis to retire before at least com.
mencing this letter. was just thinking
where would W direct his steps were he
| in my place. To the Academy To the
Lyceum? Grand places both. In one is
still grove OF olives watered by the same
Cephisus where Plato mused and specu-
lated upon vital themes common to our
common humanity, and around the other
the memory OF Aristotle. the founder Of
the Perapoletics, still casts halo OF glory.
Would he 90 to the Stadium, where the
youth and yalor OF Greece contended for
the perisbable laurel-Ieaf in games which
have winged many OF ST. PauPs admonitions
with trenchant illustrations? There, and q
score Of places where poets have sung and
orators thundered phillipics. believe you
would pass, and, turning sharply up the
Acropolis hill, leave its glories for re-
tired seat upon that hallowed spot-Mars
Hill. 1t is prominent, striking feature in
the topography Of the place. Sloping gen.
tly from the valley, it rears its limestone
head within an hundred feet OF the walls Of
the Acropolis. At the highest point the
rocky summit rises forty or fifty feet from
the surrounding slope, its surface proper
some sixty Seet by three hundred or
more. The grim stones are deeply cut
at several places, denoting the site of the
temple OF the Semnae and the open Court
OF the Areopagus. One may yet see the
wide seats for accused and accuser, as in
open air they plead before the august tri-
bunal. But however pleasant it may be to
burnish rusty memories OF Grecian sages
and law-givers, the mind instinctively turns
to Il scene here enacted beneath these beau
teoas Grecian skies. Twas nothing Won
derful that Paul should have resorted to
this spot, nor to the Greeks that a stranger
should announce strange doctrines, for here
the people came 'to tell and to hear new
things"
I dare say the Apostle created no unusual
stir and excited no prepos>essions in the
minds OF the assembly as he quietly took
his seat on one of those very stones, it may
be. [ cannot but reflect upon the inspira-
tion o! such surroundings upon one so cul-
tivatcd as Paul. To his left were Hyme-
thus and the hill OF the MUSES., to his right
that OF the Nymphs, while before were the
ancient Agora and the Benaa Of Athens
orators. In the distance he could dis
tinctly see the Bay and Island of Salams,
the Piraeus, and away beyond the hills Of
the Morea. With the memories OF the gio-
ries OF this most celebrated people before
him, how proud must the great preacher
have been to proclaim the message OF his
King, and how deferential his exordium
When Paul remarked that in all things he
perceived the people too superstitious. or
"auite religious" as it may be rendered,
believe he had in his eye the grottoes and
temples that thronged that portion OF. the
city. He could see the Theseum, the most
perfect specimen Of an ancient temple ex-
tant; the Acropolis was Just to hand. with
the pretty temple of Nike Apteros (Wing-
less Victory; the beautiful Erectheum,
and the Parthenon. How his great heart
swelled at these grand manifestations Of an
intuitive search after Coda stretching
forth of the hands-a cropping after some
thing higher and better. How beautifully
he points their minds towards a spiritual
Being, who deigns to make these grand seas
and hills His footstool, but whose throne is
in yonder blue vault. .. r..