urry on towards the next object with the same
heartless indifference. How different is their conduct on arriving at
the busy haunts of men, which promise balls, dinners, or festas! Then,
hours and days are not sufficient for the gratification of their
favourite enjoyments, and every stratagem is put in practice to create
delay.

Hardly one third of the passengers landed at Delos, yet five days were
absolutely lost in Smyrna. The same parties who grumbled, and grudged
four short hours at this isle, would have detained us as many days over
the number specified in the city of figs, had they been permitted. Nor
was the cool morning, or evening, freshened by the never-failing breeze,
selected for going ashore; but the very hottest time of day, when on
this treeless, barren, granite island, the reflection of light and heat
is almost insupportable: when Apollo darts his fiercest rays on those
who wander to seek his fane, and Diana was unable to offer them any
cool, shady retreat which, at such an hour, she would herself have loved
so well. Yonder, under the soot-imbued awning of the Francesco, sits
many a listless cold-hearted being gazing without emotion,--

----"on the sacred place,
Where once stood shrines and gods;"

and with no enviable feelings putting the question to him, who, with his
imagination rapt on the thoughts of other days, hastens to the classic
shore:--"_What is the use of running out in the sun; cannot you see
those piles of stones from the deck?_"--Senseless, unfeeling, sordid,
and degraded! what can have induced you to approach this consecrated
land?

[Sidenote: A MODERN ANTIQUE.]There was one of our party who thought he
had made a grand discovery and capture. With great labour and exertion,
we carried for him to the water's edge a large block of marble,
resembling a portion of a basin or font. He at once decided, that it had
been some receptacle for water belonging to the temple, and resolved on
carrying it to Palermo. Unfortunately, however, it was shortly
afterwards recognised to be nothing more than a Turkish mortar for
pounding the sulphur, nitre, and charcoal used in the manufacture of
gunpowder; and on examination, there was no doubt of its being perfectly
modern. "Never mind," said its proprietor; "it shall go to my palace;
and there being no reason to explain what it really is only _whence_ it
came, the Sicilians will admire and venerate it as a relic from Delos!"

[Sidenote: B