in bas-relief Pan seated on a
rock with a draped nymph, supposed to be Echo, before him (433); a
cast of the tablet of Euthydia, daughter of Diogenes, who is taking
leave of friends (435); and lastly, a bas-relief representing the
shape of a shield, on which the names of the _ephebi_ of Athens, under
Alcamenes, are inscribed. This is said to have belonged originally to
the Parthenon. And here the visitor will close his inspection of the
Elgin Saloon. That he will return to these fine relics of the old
Greeks, if he have the opportunity, is certain. He may come again and
again, and each time gain something in the contemplation of these
classical models; noble thoughts before the masterly figure of
Theseus, a keen sense of beauty near the beautiful forms of the
Parthenon frieze. Of all the glorious monuments of antiquity that have
reached us of the proud nineteenth century, none have so noble a
significance as the broken marbles collected in this room. The
contemplative man, seeing their perfect beauties, asks himself in
their presence many puzzling questions. But perhaps the first that
rises in the mind is wonder at the contrast between the development of
art and the poorness of science in this splendid antiquity. No steam
then to wield the hammer; only the most limited knowledge of the
earth: the west an indescribable region of harmony and glory; the
world a flat surface; fearful mariners hugging the shore close at
home, and trusting to the stars; and England a savage place where
wolves rent the air at night; and a heathen mythology the faith of the
most civilised people of the earth. Under these barbarous
circumstances, the poetry that dwells in the heart of all people who
cultivate some affinity to nature, fashioned the mould of a Phidias
for the people of Athens. A man with a stern soul, an eye large and
grand, a frame built to realise the soul's tasks--we see this Phidias
of the Greeks as he hovered about the foundations of the Parthenon,
when the name of Pericles was every Greek's watchword, four centuries
and a half before our Christian era. The man appears to have been of
colossal parts in every way. Versed in history, a poet given to study
fables (as all poets are), keen in sifting the subtleties of geometry,
a passionate reader of Homer; this was indeed the sculptor of the
gods! Of the high estimation in which the sculptures of the Parthenon
should be held, it is superfluous to say more than all writers on art