at arrogant and fickle democracy, and thereby making
Philip of Macedon tremble, or working good or ill for the entire
civilized world. Immediately before him looking upon the crowded city,
studded in every part with memorials sacred to religion or patriotism,
and exhibiting the highest achievements of art. On his left, somewhat
beyond the walls, the Academy, with its groves of plane and olive-trees,
its retired walks and cooling fountains, its altar to the Muses, its
statues of the Graces, its Temple of Minerva, and its altars to
Prometheus, to Love, and Hercules, near which Plato had his country
seat, and in the midst of which he had taught as well his followers
after him. But the most impressive spectacle laying on his right hand,
that small and precipitous hill "The Acropolis" where clustered together
monuments of the highest art, and memorials of the national religion,
such as no other equal spot of ground has ever borne. The Apostle's
eyes, in turning to the right, would fall on the north-west side of the
eminence, which was here and all round, covered and protected by a wall,
parts of which were so ancient as to be of Cyclopean origin. The western
side, which alone gave access to what, from its original destination,
may be termed the fort, was, during the administration of Pericles,
adorned with a splendid flight of steps, and the beautiful Propylaea,
with its five entrances and two flanking temples, constructed by
Mnesicles of Pentelican marble at a cost of 2012 talents, which is the
equivalent of about four millions of American dollars. In the time of
the Roman emperors there stood before the Propylaea, equestrian statues
of Augustus and Agrippa. On the southern wing of the Propylaea was a
temple to the Wingless Victory; on the northern, a Pinacotheca, or
picture gallery. On the highest part of the platform of the Acropolis,
not more than 300 feet from the entrance-buildings just described, stood
and yet stands, though shattered and mutilated, The Parthenon, justly
celebrated throughout the world, erected of white Pentelican marble,
under the direction of Callicrates, Ictinus and Carpion and adorned with
the finest sculptures from the hand of Phidias.

Northward from the Parthenon was the Erechtheum, a compound building
which contained the temple of Minerva Polias; the proper Erechtheum,
called also the Cecropium, and the Pandroseum. This sanctuary contained
the holy olive tree sacred to Minerva, the holy salt-sp