becomes serious and affecting, when we consider the happy effects of our missions, when we reflect that a French capuchin afforded hospitality to Chandler, while other French religions were entertaining other travellers in China and in Canada, in the deserts of Africa and the wilds of Tartary.

"The Franks at Athens have no chapel," says Spon, "except that of the Capuchins, which is at the Fanari tou Demosthenis. When we were at Paris, the only person there was Father Seraphin, a very worthy man, from whom a Turk belonging to the garrison one day took his cord girdle, either out of malice, or the effects of intoxication, having met him in the road to the Lion's Port, whence he was returning alone from a visit to some Frenchmen on board of a tartan, then lying in that harbour.

"The Jesuits were established at Athens before the Capuchins, and were never driven from the city. They retired to Negropont, merely because they there found more occupation and a greater number of Franks than at Athens. Their convent was almost at the extremity of the town, near the archbishop's palace. As to the Capuchins, they have been settled at Athens ever since 1658, and Father Simon purchased the Fanari and the adjoining house, in 1669, there having been other religious of his order before him in the town."

It is then to these missions so long decried that we are indebted for our early notions respecting ancient Greece. No traveller had yet quitted his home to visit the Parthenon, when some religious,

self-exiled to these renowned ruins, awaited like hospitable deities the antiquary and the artist. The scholar enquired what had become of the city of Cecrops, and there was a Father Barnabas at Paris in the noviciate of St. James, and a Father Simon at Compiègne, who could have given him information on the subject; but they made no parade of their knowledge. Retiring to the foot of the crucifix, they buried in the obscurity of the convent what they had learned, and above all, what they had suffered for twenty years, amidst the ruins of Athens.

"The French Capuchins," says la Guilletière, "who have been called to the mission of the Morea, by the congregation de Propaganda Fide, have their principal residence at Napoli, because the gallies of the beys winter at that place, where they in general lie from the month of November till St. George's day, on which they again put to sea. They are manned with christian slaves, who stand in need of instruction and encouragement; and this is imparted to them with equal zeal and benefit by Father Barnabas of Paris, who is at present the superior of the Mission of Athens and the Morea."

But if these religious, after their return from Sparta and Athens, were so modest in their cloisters, perhaps it was because they wanted a relish for the admirable remains of the Grecian arts; perhaps too they had not previously acquired the requisite information. Let us hear what is

said by Father Babin, the Jesuit, to whom we are indebted for the earliest account we have of Athens.

"You may find," says he, "in various books a description of Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and the other principal cities in the world, such as they are at present; but I know not what book describes Athens as I have seen it; and you would not find the city at all if you were to look for it as represented in Pausanias and other ancient authors: but you shall here see it in the state in which it appears at this day, which is such, that, though in ruins, it nevertheless excites a certain respect, both in those pious persons who behold its churches, and in those scholars who acknowledge it to be the mother of the sciences, and in those military men and generous minds, who consider it as the field of Mars, the theatre where the greatest conquerors of antiquity signalized their valour, and gloriously displayed their energies, their courage, and their industry. Finally, these ruins are valuable as attestations of its primitive splendour, and demonstrating that it was formerly an object of admiration to the universe.

"For my part I must own that, when I looked at it with a telescope from the sea, when I beheld the numbers of large marble columns which are visible at a great distance, and evince its ancient magnificence, I could not help feeling some respect for it."

The missionary then proceeds to a description

of the different edifices. More fortunate than we,

he saw the Parthenon entire, and has described it in the following terms:

"This temple, which may be seen very far off, which is the most elevated structure in Athens, and stands in the midst of the citadel, is a master-piece of the greatest architects of antiquity. It is about one hundred and twenty feet in length, and fifty in breadth. You there see three ranges of roofs supported by very lofty marble columns; that is to say, the nave and two wings: in which it surpasses St. Sophia's, erected at Constantinople by the Emperor Justinian, though in other respects a wonder of the world. But I took notice that its walls are only encrusted and lined with large slabs of marble, which have fallen down in some places from the galleries above, where you may see bricks and stones which were covered with marble.

“But though this temple of Athens be so magnificent in regard to its materials, it is still more admirable for its style and the skill displayed in it; Materiam superabat opus. Among the roofs, all of which are of marble, one is more particularly remarkable, because it is adorned with as many beautiful figures engraven upon the marble as it can possibly hold.

"The length of the vestibule is equal to the width of the temple, and it is about fourteen feet broad. Above it there is a flat roof, which looks like a rich floor, or a magnificent ceiling; for you there perceive large pieces of marble, resembling

long, thick beams, which support other great pieces of the same material, adorned with various figures, executed with wonderful skill.

The pediment of this temple, which is at a great height above the vestibule, is such, that I scarcely think there is any thing equal to it for magnificence and workmanship in all France. The figures and statues of the Richelieu palace, the miracle of France, and the master-piece of the artists of the present day, are not to be compared with these large and beautiful figures of men, women, and horses, which appear to the number of thirty in this pediment; and there are as many more at the other end of the temple, behind the place where stood the high altar in the times of the Christians.

"On each side of the temple is an alley or gallery, where you pass between the walls of the edifice, and seventeen very thick and lofty fluted columns, which are not of a single piece, but of several large pieces of fine white marble, laid one upon another. Between these pillars there is along this gallery a low wall, which leaves between each column a space of sufficient length and breadth for an altar and a chapel, such as are seen along the sides and near the walls of large churches.

"These columns serve to support the walls of the temple above with arched buttresses, and prevent them from being injured externally by the weight of the roof. The walls of the temple, on