Determined not to be outdone by them in coolness, I seated myself in the middle of them, and, being provided with the materials, instantly began shaving myself, to their no small astonishment, and the equal delight of the boys of our party, who have turned this anecdote into a pleasant story, which is my only reason for mentioning it.
You of course recollect that the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, which was one of the wonders of the world, was destroyed on the very day that Alexander was born, | A. A. C. 356| by a sacrilegious wretch, to render himself remembered by posterity. We found many ruins, and among the rest, a superb pile quite overturned, which we concluded was the remains of this celebrated temple. The columns were all broken. The most entire piece was forty-two feet in length, and eighteen in circumference. This and the rest of the columns, were every one hewn out of single blocks of marble; but notwithstanding the immense size and value of these materials several antiquarians will not allow them to have belonged to the real Temple of Diana.
It is not my purpose to dispute with these learned gentlemen, I shall only observe, that none of them have made the columns of this Temple more than sixty feet high.
According to Palladio's measurement of the pillars to the portico of the celebrated Rotunda at Rome, which has universally been accepted as a proper standard, the height of the Corinthian column is twenty modules.
A circumference of eighteen feet gives a module of three feet, and in common arithmetic, twenty of these give sixty. On these proportions then, the fragment I mention formed a column of the exact height handed down to us of those of the Temple of Diana.
But people who wish to diminish the consequence of the pile I am mentioning, may say that Palladio's proportions are liable to exceptions, which I will readily admit, that I may ask, whether it is possible, by any proportions, to make a column less than sixty feet high of a base and capital, in addition to a shaft, a fragment of which is forty-two feet in length?
If either of the positions I take up be admitted, those antiquarians who will not allow this magnificent pile of ruins to have belonged to the Temple of Diana, must at least confess, that these superb fragments must have formed an edifice equal to it, both in size and grandeur.
We also saw the remains of St. John's Church, now converted into a Turkish Mosque. Part of the aqueduct, and many other vestiges of the once noble city of Ephesus, are still to be seen. But in lieu of the Blessed Virgin, St. Paul, St. John, Kings, Princes, and Heroes, who rendered it so famous, both in sacred and profane history, its inhabitants are now reduced to a few miserable peasants.
We met no manner of interruption on the road, notwithstanding this is a time when the Government, naturally weak, is obliged to suffer a kind of licentiousness, in order to keep the rabble in good humour, and to complete the new levies.
Never was there a more popular war than the present. The Turks, from every part of this immense Empire, are preparing to join the grand army. The suspicions against the Emperor of Germany increase every day; but from the zeal and spirit with which every Mussulman enters into the cause, one is almost led to imagine, that the Ottomans will make a tolerable stand against the powerful enemies by which they will be attacked.