The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-19
A Spring Day in Greece.


 vent of spring in Greece. Those who wander over sea and land in search of climates perfectly suitable to each phase of the year often seek 1t and find 1t not. Some come in April, and it
 Is still winter; another year they come in May. and 1t Is already summer. But it Is worth while to come While It IS still winter and walt for spring, for spring has golden days.
 Spring comes suddenly. Some even- ing, when you are sitting indoors, after cool day, grumbling at continental stoves, and declaring that the south IS
 indeed false and iickle, a hint of change is lsped In the air. A quick
 impulse moves you to open the win
 dow and See whether 1t is not a little
 warmer. And when you open the win
 dow you find that spring has come, and
 while 1t lasts, Greece Is the garden of the Lord. The sun rises cloudlesely.
 walks all day through most pellucid air." and sinks into clear west,
 Morning by morning a gentle wind | blows fresh from the Aegean sea, and evening by evening returns from the
 plains where it has wandered all day, laden with the scent of flowers. On
 the violet crown of mountains which
 hold Athens in their hand, the white
 cistus bursts like foam over green
 sea of tender leaf, the brooksides are starred with bee-orchis and meadow sweet, and all the dells flush crimson with aner1ones. The orange leaf falls not, but a soft white mist breaks out among the Velvet-green, and the air is 1 filled with q fragrance infinitely fine | and sweet. The slopes of Hymettus are loud with bees which are returning with the evening breeze to the villa of | the Caesars, drunken and overbold'
 with the juices of thyme and stock and cassia shrub. Even the columns of our Lady of the Acropolis, stained golden red with sun and wind, look less aus l terely out, for their feet are set in mar suerites, white and gold, and a hun dred Towering grasses. And you, if
 you are wise, will go up Pentelicus. The morning dawns cool, but by ten
 the sun is high, and the goat-bells al-
 ready sound thin and faint from the | upper slopes. Below on the left, as you look towards Athens, stands te gray
 monastery with it's spring of coldest
 water, drawn from the brain of the
 purple mountain," and its frontal of
 tall, listless white poplars, whose
 leaves gleam green beneath the sun and gray beneath the cloud. The track
 lies close to the lip of the old marble quarries, in which P. eidias sought and found the Parthenon, column, frieZe | and pediment. To-day maiden-hair | springs from its sides, and stalactites creep slowly from roof to floor and | rise from floor to roof. A great tawny | sheep-dog does his duty by barking al | you as you pass, rousing from his mid | day sleep a brown-sknned shepherd | boy, who looks at you gravey and
 shyly out of his big black eyes. Every
 now and then you may see a large tor l toise taking a slow walk, after the
 manner of an elderly gentleman, and | long green lizards scuttle across t. e path. Then as you strike the ridge
 which leads to the top, each step re-
 veals miles of new horizon. To the
 east Euboea sleeps in a robe of blue
 and one great snow-peaked mountain
 keeps watch for her. The Euripus
 winds snakewise between her and the mainland and to the north, on the ho- | rizon, Parnassus stands sentinel over | Delphi. But best of all is that little | semi-circular bay, a blue bite out of | the land, which seems to be almost at your feet. The land slopes gently | down in corn-felds and olive-groves to
 a strip of white sand, and near the
 beach stands small mound and un-
 derneath that mound sleep the Atheni-
 ans who died at Marathon.
 There is time for everything under
 the sun. There certainly appears to be
 plenty of time for introspection, for l the dissection of ones self and of oth- CTS for the contemplation of unlovely details; but there is a time for recep- 1 tveness, for laying ones self open to sweet natural influences. Man may
 or may not be vile, but when nature is
 wholly beautiful it is good to mix with | the elements, and when spring is strong on the side of Pentelicus and l HdTHeS, IL lS SOOu lO OpSll Olc lltdl | | without thought or scrutinizing reflec- tion, and take her in. Afterwards if | we will, we may take our scalpel again and see what she has done for us; but 1 if we have let her do her best we shall not be so anxious to examine the re- | suit. Feeling is often better than | knowledge, and we have sometimes to
 murder thing before we can dissect, l and afterwards perhaps we are sorry
 it Is dead.
 Spring may last a week or a fort l night, or even a month. Sometimes Greece reflects its image again in au-
 tumn, when the vineyards are yielding
 their store, and the purple grapes ar, l to be had for the asking, but it is not
 the same thing. The air is hot ant 1 tired, and we can but remember the
 terrible days when the sky was brass and the land white dust We have to
 wait till the full circle of the year
 brings back the golden days. But it is
 worth while waiting a year for golden
 days like these.--London Spectator.