Milford chronicle., 1891-11-27


never again to fly away, and hence this
temple to Victory Without Wings
temple Of marble, snow white and glitter
ing. Yonder behold the pedestal Of Agrip-
pa, twenty-seven feet high and twelve feet
square.
WONDERS OF THE PARTHENON.
But the overshadowing wonder Of all
the hill is the Parthenon. In days when
money was ten times more valuable than
now It cost four million six hundred
thousand dollars. It is a Doric grand
eur. having forty-six columns, each col
umn thirty-four feet high and six feet
two inches in diameter. Wondrous inter
columniationsl Painted pOrticos, archi-
traves tinged with ocher, shields OF gold
hung up. lines Of most delicate curve, fig-
ures Of horses and men and women and
gods. oxen on the way to sacrifice, statues
of the deities Dionysius, Prometheus,
Hermes, Demeter, Zeus. Hera, Poseidon;
in one frieze twelve divinities; centaurs in
battle: weaponry from Marathon; chariot
of night; chariot of the morning; horses
Of the sun, the fntes, the furies; statue OF
,Jupiter holding in his right hand the
thnnderbolt; silver footed chair In which
Xerxes watched the battle of Salamis only
a few miles away.
Here is the colossal statue Of Minerva IN
full armor, eyes of gray eolored stone, fig
ure of a Sphinx on her head, grifiins by
her side (which are lions with eagles
beal,). spear in one hand, statue of liber-
~ in the other, Il shield carved with battle
scenes. and even the slippers sculptured
and tied on with thongs Of gold. Far out
Mt sen the sailors saw this statue Of Miner
va rising high above ali the temples, gilt
tering In the sun Here are statues Of
eouestrians, statue of honness, and there
are the Graces, and yonder horse in
bronze
There is a statue said in the time Of
Augustus to have of its own accord turned
around from east to west and spit blood;
statues made ont Of shields conquered in
battle: statue of Apollo. the expeller Of
locusts; statue Of Anacrenn, drunk and
singing: statue of Olympodorus, Greek,
memorable for the fact that he was cheer
ful when others were cast down, trait
worthy of sculpture. But walk on and
around the AcropOlis and yonder you see
a statue of Hygeia, and the statue Of The
seus fighting the Minotaur and the statue
of Hercules staying serpcnts. No wonder
that Petronius said it was easier to ind a
god than man in Athens. Oh, the Acrop-
olisi The most Of its temples and statues
made from the marble quarries Of Mount
Pentelicum, little way from the city.
have here on my table a block of the
Parthenon made out OF this marble, and
on it is the sculpture of Phidias brought
il from the Acropohs. This specimen has
on it the dust of ages and the marks of
explosion and battle, but yon can get from
it some idea Of the delicate lnster Of the
Acroptlis when it was covered with IA
mountain of this marble cut into all the
exquisite shapes that genius could con
trive and striped with silver and aflame
with gold. The AcropOlis in the morning
livbt Of those auceuts must have shoIe as
tboUtlA, iC were an gernloe cast al from
the MONDAY sun The temples mustNsave
looked like petrifed foam. The whoHe
Acropolis must have seemed like the white
breakers Of the great ocean of time.
THE AREoPAGUs, OR MARS HILL
But we cannot stop longer here, for there
is a hill near by of more interest, though
it has not one chip of marble to suggest a
statue or a temple We hasten down the
Aeropolis to ascend the Areopagus, or
Mars Hill. us it is called 1t took only
about three minutes to walk the distance,
and the two hilltops are so near that what
said in religious discourse on Mars lilil
was heard distinctly by some English gen
tlemen on the AcropOlis. This Mars Hill Is
a rough pile of rock fifty feet high It was
famous long before New Testament times
The Persians easily and terribly assault
ed the Acropolis from this hilltop. Here
assembled the court to try criminals. II
was held in the nighttime, so that the
faces of the Judges could not be seen, nor
the faces of the lawyers who made the
plea. and so, instead Of trial being one OF
emotion, it must have been one of cool JUS
tice. But there was one OCCASION on this
hill memorable above all others.
A little mau, physically weak, and his
rhetoric described by himself as contemp'
tible. had by his sermons rocked Athens
with commotion, and he was summoned
either by writ of law or hearty invitation
to come upon that pulpit Of rock and give
a aspecimen Of his theology. All the wise
acres of Athens turned out and turned up
to hear MIN. The more venerable Of them
sat in IN amphitheater, the granite seats
If which are still visible, but the other
people swarmed on all sides OF the hill ana
Mt the base of it to hear this man, whom
some called fanatic, and others called a
madeap. and others a blasphemer, ard
others styled contemptuously this lei
low"
PAM arrived in answer to the writ or in
citation. and confronted them and gave
them the biggest dose that mortals ever
tool. lie was so built that nothing could
scare him. and as for Jupiter and Atheniar
the cod and the goddess, whose images
,yere in full sight on the adjoining hill, he
had not so much regard for them AS be
FfttfF
sand under his feet. In that audience were
the first orators Of the world, and they had
voices like flutes when they were passive
and ike trumpets when they were
aroused. and think they laughed IN the
sleeves of their gowns as TINS lnsighiilcAh'
looking man rose to speak.
In that audience were Seholiasts, who
knew everything, or thought they did, and
from, the end Of the longest hair on the
ton of their craniums to the end Of ths
nail on the longest toe, they were stuffed
with hyDercriticism and they leane'l bacR
with n supercilious look to listen. As n
1859 / stood on that rock where Pau
steod. and a slab of which ! brought from
s Athens by consent Of the queen, through
Mr. Tricoupis, the prime minister and hae
nlaeed in wonder Memorial Wall, reae
the whole story, Bible in hand.
PAUL'g DEFIANCE TO HEATlIEEIsM.
1 What have so far said in this discourse
was necessary in order that you may un
derstaud the boldness, tho defiance, th'
! holy recklessness, the magnihcenee o
/ Paulis speech. The first thunderbolt b
launched at the opposite hili-the Acropo
! lis-that moment all Hglitter with idols an'
temples. He cries out, "God who MAD
the World" Why, they thought TINT FRO
metheus made II, that Mercury made Al
that Apollo made it. that Poseidon made u
that Eros made it. that Pandrocus made L
I that Boreas lnadeit, that ittook all the god
Of the ps.rthenon. yea, all the gods and goo
desses Of the Acropolis to make It, an
! here stands man without any eeciesia'
teal title, neither a D. p, nor even
reverend, declaring that the world wa
made by the Lord of heaven and EARTH an
hence the Inference that all the splendi
covering OF the Acropnlis, so near that th
peopIe stauding on the steps OF the hal
thenon could hear it, was q deceit. ials'
hood, a sham, a. blasphemy. Look at "a
faces of his auditors; they are turning pan
and then rel, aud then wrathfnl. Ihei
had been several earthquakes 10 tnl
.N