olive trees, we were obliged to take a guide at last. We were several
times stopped by the deep ravines which the torrents have cut in the
face of the country. There were an immense number of aloes in the
hedges, many in flower.

The night was as fine and clear as could be desired; and the moon shone
with an intensity of light. On arriving at the Temple of Hercules,
nothing met our eyes but one solitary column rising from a mass of
prostrate ruins, and over-topping the cluster of Indian fig-trees that
grew around it. Pointing towards the heavens, it seemed to
whisper,--"Mortals, there must you look for eternity: here all is
crumbling to decay!"

[Sidenote: REFLECTIONS.] We passed on through groves of the
above-mentioned trees, and alongside walls and turrets excavated from
the solid rock, until the whole of the Temple of Concord, and,
immediately afterwards, that of Juno, burst upon our sight. In this
still hour, as we stood upon their ruins, and extended our view over the
boundless prospect of sea and land,--the one calm and tranquil as a
sleeping child; the other, like an old but vigorous man, marked and
furrowed by the devastating hand of time,--how impressive was the scene!
Can I ever lose the recollection of that moment? No. Girgenti,--

"My eye hath play'd the painter, and hath steeled
Thy beauty's form in table of my heart!"

Often have I lingered within the Coliseum when its majestic ruins were
silvered o'er by the light of the same lovely orb, which now threw its
lustre on these prostrate relics of departed greatness: I have wandered
alone among the temples of Paestum; I have stood on the Parthenon while
the sun threw his latest, brightest ray over that hallowed spot: but
never did I feel as among the ruins of Girgenti. On all these former
scenes, the combination of nature and art has fixed the impress of mere
beauty; here their union is sublime.

The Eastern sky is brightening with the beams of the morning sun, and
its reflection tints each mouldering column with a purple light. The
moon slowly resigns her influence over the scene, and a splendid
prospect of earth and sea bursts upon the eye, as the sun springs
upwards from behind the ruins, like the presiding deity of the spot.

[Sidenote: GALLEY SLAVES.] We next proceeded to the Temple of Giants;
and, judging from the fragments which lie scattered, over a vast area,
how colossal must have been the proportions of this once magnificent
edifice! Th