he frequently mentions Wheeler, but never intro- A. D. 1764. duces the name of Spon without a marked reluctance. Spon certainly deserves to be noticed when the partner of his labours is spoken of: Chandler, as a scholar and a traveller, ought to have forgotten that he was an Englishman. In 1805, he published his last work on Athens, which I have not been able to procure. Reidesel. Riedesel visited the Peloponnese and Attica in A, D. 1773. 1773. He has filled his little work with many grand reflections on the manners, laws, and religion of the Greeks and Turks. The baron travelled in the Morea three years after the Russian expedition. A great number of monuments had perished at Sparta, at Argos, and at Megalopolis, in consequence of this invasion; in the same manner as the antiquities of Athens owed their final destruction to the expedition of the Venetians. Choiseul. The first volume of M. de Choiseul's magnificent A.D. 1778, work appeared at the beginning of 1778. This performance I shall have frequent occasion to mention with deserved commendation. I shall merely remark in this place, that M. de Choiscul has not yet published the Monuments of Attica and of the Peloponnese. The author was at Athens in 1784; and it was the same year, I believe, that M. Chabert determined the latitude and longitude of the temple of Minerva. Foucherot and The researches of Messrs. Foucherot and Fauvel A. D. 1780 began about 1780, and were prosecuted in the Fauvel. succeeding years. The Memoirs of the latter describe places and antiquities heretofore unknown. M. Fauvel was my host at Athens, and of his la bours I shall speak in another place. A. D. 1780. A. D. 1785. A. D. 1791. A. D. 1797. Dixo and Ni дорогі. Our great Greek scholar d'Ansse de Villoison tra velled over Greece nearly about this period, but we have not reaped the benefit of his studies. M. Lechevalier paid a hasty visit to Athens in 1785. The travels of M. Scrofani bear the stamp of the age, that is to say, they are philosophical, political, economical, &c. To the study of antiquity they contribute nothing; but the author's observations on the soil, population, and commerce of the Morea are excellent and new. At the time of M. Scrofani's travels, two Englishmen ascended the most elevated summit of the Tay getus. In 1797, Messrs. Dixo and Nicolo Stephanopoli, colo Stepha were sent to the republic of Maina by the French government. These travellers highly extol that republic, which has been the subject of much discus sion. For my part, I have the misfortune to consider the Mainottes as a horde of banditti, of Scla vonian extraction, and no more the descendants of the ancient Spartans than the Druses are the offspring of the Count de Dreux. I cannot therefore share the enthusiasm of those who behold in these pirates of Taygetus the virtuous heirs of Lacedæmonian liberty. A, D. 1798, Lord Elgin, M. Poucqueville would certainly be the best guide for the Morea, if he had been able to visit all the places that he has described. He was unfortunately a prisoner at Tripolizza. About this time Lord Elgin, the English ambas“ sador at Constantinople, caused researches and ravages to be made in Greece, which I shall have occasion to praise and to deplore. Soon after him, his countrymen Swinton and Hawkins visited Athens, A. D. 1798. Sparta, and Olympia. Bartholdi. The Fragments designed to contribute to the AD. 1803. Knowledge of Modern Greece conclude the list of all these travels. They are indeed but fragments. Let us now sum up, in a few words, the history of the monuments of Athens. The Parthenon, the temple of Victory, great part of the temple of the Olympian Jupiter, another monument denominated by Guillet the Lantern of Diogenes, were seen in all their beauty by Zygomalas, Cabasilas, and Deshayes. De Monceaux, the Marquis de Nointel, Galland, Father Babin, Spon, and Wheeler, also admired the Parthenon while yet entire; but the Lantern of Diogenes had disappeared, and the temple of Victory had been blown up by the explosion of a powder-magazine; so that no part of it was left standing but the pediment. * Pococke, Leroi, Stuart, and Chandler, found the Parthenon half destroyed by the bombs of the Venetians, and the pediment of the temple of Victory demolished. Since that period the ruins have kept continually encreasing. I shall relate in what manner they were augmented by Lord Elgin. The learned world consoles itself with the drawings of M. de Nointel, and the picturesque tours of Leroi and Stuart. M. Fauvel has taken casts of two cariatides of the Pandroseum and some basso-relievos of the temple of Minerva. A metope of the same temple is in the hands of M. de Choiseul. Lord Elgin took away several others, which, perhaps, *This accident happened in 1656. A. D. 180. perished with the ship that foundered at Cerigo. Messrs. Swinton and Hawkins possess a bronze trophy found at Olympia. The mutilated statue of Ceres Eleusina is also in England. Lastly, we have in terra cotta the choragic monument of Lysicrates. It is a melancholy reflection, that the civilized nations of Europe have done more injury to the mo◄ numents of Athens in the space of one hundred and fifty years than all the barbarians together in a long series of ages: it is cruel to think that Alaric and Mahomet II. respected the Parthenon, and that it was demolished by Morosini and Lord Elgin, SECOND MEMOIR, I HAVE already observed that it is my intention to inquire in this Second Memoir into the authenticity of the christian traditions relative to Jerusalem. The history of that city, being involved in no obscurity, has no occasion for preliminary explanations. The traditions respecting the Holy Land derive their certainty from three sources: from history, from religion, and from places or local circumstances. Let us first consider them in an historical point of view. Christ, accompanied by his Apostles, accomplished at Jerusalem the mysteries of his passion. The writings of the four Evangelists are the earliest documents that record the actions of the Son of Man. The acts of Pilate, preserved at Rome, in the time of Tertullian,* attested the principal event of that history, the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. The Redeemer expired. Joseph of Arimathea obtained the sacred body, and deposited it in a tomb at the foot of Calvary. The Messiah rose again on the third day, appeared to his apostles and disciples, gave them his instructions, and then returned to the right hand of his Father. At this time the church commences at Jerusalem. It is natural to suppose that the first apostles * Apolog, advers. Gent. |