helley.]

[Footnote 38: One of Shelley's many letters to his friend, Thomas Love
Peacock, of which Symonds says: "Taken altogether, they are the most
perfect specimens of descriptive prose on the English language; never
overcharged with color, vibrating with emotions excited by the
stimulating scenes of Italy, frank in criticisms, and exquisitely
delicate in observation. Their transparent sincerity and
unpremeditated grace, combined with natural finish of expression, make
them masterpieces of a style at once familiar and elevated." It was
among the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla that Shelley wrote his poem
"Prometheus Unbound." Of this poem Shelley wrote from Florence on
December 26, 1819, a letter the original of which is now owned in New
York by Louis V. Ledoux: "My 'Prometheus' is the best thing I ever
wrote."]

[Footnote 39: A letter to Thomas Love Peacock, dated "Naples, Jan. 26,
1819."]

GEORGE GROTE

Born in 1794, died in 1871; educated at the Charterhouse;
entered his father's bank in 1810 and devoted himself
thenceforth to banking; elected to Parliament in 1833,
serving until 1841; published his "History of Greece" in
1846-56; wrote also "Plato and Other Companions of
Socrates," which was published in 1865.

I

THE MUTILATION OF THE HERMAE[40]

After between two and three months of active preparations, the
expedition[41] was almost ready to start, when an event happened which
fatally poisoned the prevalent cheerfulness of the city. This was the
mutilation of the Hermae, one of the most extraordinary events in all
Grecian history.

The Hermae, or half-statues of the god Hermes, were blocks of marble
about the height of the human figure. The upper part was cut into a
head, face, neck, and bust; the lower part was left as a quadrangular
pillar, broad at the base, without arms, body, or legs, but with the
significant mark of the male sex in front. They were distributed in
great numbers throughout Athens, and always in the most conspicuous
situations; standing beside the outer doors of private houses as well
as of temples--near the most frequented porticoes--at the intersection
of crossways--in the public agora. They were thus present to the eye
of every Athenian in all his acts of inter-communion, either for
business or pleasure, with his fellow citizens. The religious feeling
of the Greeks considered the god to be planted, or domiciliated, where
his statu