At the southwest of Athens is the Mount Hymettus. I'd hearn a sight
about its honey. Josiah thought he would love to buy a swarm of bees
there, but I asked him how could he carry 'em to Jonesville. He said
that if he could learn 'em to fly ahead on us he could do it. But he
can't.

The road west wuz Eulusas, the Sacred Way. And to the north wuz the
Academy of Plato, and that of Aristotle wuz not fur away. One day I
see there on an old altar, "Sacred to either a god or goddess." They
believed in the rights of wimmen, them old Pagans did, which shows
there is good in everything.

And how smart Socrates wuz; I always sot store by him, he wuz a good
talker and likely in a good many ways, though I spoze he and his wife
didn't live agreeable, and there might have been blame on both sides
and probable wuz. How calm he wuz when on trial for his life, and when
he had drunk the hemlock, sayin' to his accusers:

"I go to death and you to life; but which of the twain is better is
known only to Divinity."

And Mr. Plato; don't it seem as if that old Pagan's words wuz
prophetic of Christ when he spoke of an inspired teacher:

"This just person must be poor, void of all qualifications save
virtue. A wicked world will not bear his instructions and reproofs.
And therefore within three or four years after he begun to preach he
should be persecuted, imprisoned, scourged, and at last put to
death."

Hundreds of years after, Paul preaching the religion of Christ Jesus,
met the Epicurians and Stoics representing Pleasure and Pride. Strong
foes that religion has to contend with now. Then he addressed the
multitude from the Areopagus, Mars' Hill.

What feelin's I felt; how real and nigh to my heart his incomparable
sermon that he preached in that place seemed to be as I stood there. I
thought of how the cultured, beauty-loving nature of Paul must have
been affected by his surroundings as he stood there in the midst of
statutes and altars to Apollo, Venus, Bacchus. The colossial golden
figure of Minerva, holdin' in her outstretched right hand a statute of
victory, four cubits high. So big and glorious-lookin' Minerva wuz
that her glitterin' helmet and shield could be seen fur out to sea.
The statute of Neptune on horseback hurling his tridant; the temple to
Ceres and all the gods and goddesses they knew on and to the Unknown
God. Here Paul stood surrounded by all these temples so magnificent
that jest the gateway to 'em cost what woul