Rambles and Studies in Greece

RAMBLES IN GREECE
The Acropolis, Athens
BY J. P. MAHAFFY KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE SAVIOUR; AUTHOR OF “SOCIAL LIFE IN GREECE;” “A HISTORY OF GREEK LITERATURE;” “GREEK LIFE AND THOUGHT FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER;” “THE GREEK WORLD UNDER ROMAN SWAY,” ETC.
HUNC LIBRUM Edmundo Wyatt Edgell OB INSIGNEM INTER CASTRA ITINERA OTIA NEGOTIA LITTERARUM AMOREM OLIM DEDICATUM NUNC CARISSIMI AMICI MEMORIAE CONSECRAT AUCTOR
Few men there are who having once visited Greece do not contrive to visit it again. And yet when the returned traveller meets the ordinary friend who asks him where he has been, the next remark is generally, “Dear me! have you not been there before? How is it you are so fond of going to Greece?” There are even people who imagine a trip to America far more interesting, and who at all events look upon a trip to Spain as the same kind of thing—southern climate, bad food, dirty inns, and general discomfort, odious to bear, though pleasant to describe afterward in a comfortable English home.
And these are only the most salient novelties. It is indeed plain that were not the new city covering the site of the old, discoveries at Athens might be made perhaps every year, which would reform and enlarge our knowledge of Greek life and history.
But this is a digression into vulgar matters, when I had merely intended to inform the reader what intellectual novelties he would find in revisiting Athens. For nothing is more slavish in modern travel than the inability the student feels, for want of time in long journeys, or want of control over his conveyance, to stop and examine something which strikes him beside his path. And that is the main reason why Oriental—and as yet Greek—travelling is the best and most instructive of all.
In passing on I cannot but remark how strange it is that among the many rich men in the world who profess an interest in archæology, not one can be found to take up the work as Dr. Schliemann did, to enrich science with splendid fields of new evidence, and illustrate art, not only with the naïve efforts of its infancy, but with forgotten models of perfect and peerless form.