clasping in a parting
grasp the hand of a woman, who is reclining upon her deathbed. The
inscription is, _Collyrion, wife of Agathon_. On another stone of
larger size is a more imposing piece of sculpture. A horseman fully
armed is thrusting his spear into the body of his fallen foe--a
hoplite. The inscription relates that the unhappy foot-soldier fell at
Corinth _by reason of those five words of his_!--a record intelligible
enough, doubtless, to his contemporaries, but sufficiently obscure and
provocative of curiosity to later generations.

There are other noted structures at Athens, such as the Choragic
Monument of Lysicrates--the highest type of the Corinthian order of
architecture, as the Erechtheum is of the Ionic and the Parthenon of
the Doric--but want of space forbids any further description of them.
Let the American traveler visit Athens with the expectation of finding
a city occupying the most charming of sites, and containing by far
the most interesting and important monuments of antiquity, in their
original position, to be found in the whole world.

J.L.T. PHILLIPS.

[Illustration: MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES.]

COMMONPLACE.

My little girl is commonplace, you say?
Well, well, I grant it, as you use the phrase
Concede the whole; although there was a day
When I too questioned words, and from a maze
Of hairsplit meanings, cut with close-drawn line,
Sought to draw out a language superfine,
Above the common, scarify with words and scintillate with pen;
But that time's over--now I am content to stand with other men.

It's the best place, fair youth. I see your smile--
The scornful smile of that ambitious age
That thinks it all things knows, and all the while
It nothing knows. And yet those smiles presage
Some future fame, because your aim is high;
As when one tries to shoot into the sky,
If his rash arrow at the moon he aims, a bolder flight we see,
Though vain, than if with level poise it safely reached the nearest tree.

A common proverb that! Does it disjoint
Your graceful terms? One more you'll understand:
Cut down a pencil to too fine a point,
Lo, it breaks off, all useless, in your hand!
The child is fitted for her present sphere:
Let her live out her life, with