Alone and friendless on the magic shore, Hours roll'd along, and Dian's orb on high Long had I mused and treasured every trace Yes-'twas Minerva's self-but ah! how changed And ab! though still the brightest of the sky, "Mortal!" ('twas thus she spoke)" that blush of shame Proclaims thee Briton-once a noble name First of the mighty, foremost of the free, 'Scaped from the ravage of the Turk and Goth, Recount the relics torn that yet remain; These Cecrops placed-this Pericles adorn'd— Know, Alaric and Elgin did the rest That all may learn from whence the plunderer came *It is related by a late oriental traveller that when the wholesale spoliator visited Athens, he caused his own name, with that of his wife, to be inscribed on a pillar of one of the principal temples: this inscription was executed in a very conspicuous manner, and deeply engraved in the marble, at a very considerable elevation. Notwithstanding which precautions, some person (doubtless inspired by the patron-goddess) has been at the pains to get himself raised up to the requisite height, and has obliterated the name of the laird, but left that of the lady untouched. The traveller in question accompanied this story by a remark, that it must have cost some labour and contrivance to get at the place, and could only have been effected by much zeal and determination. Flesh, limbs, and blood, the former make their own, She ceased awhile, and thus I dared reply, "And well I know within that murky land Where thistle well betrays the niggard earth, Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain *The portrait of sir Wm. D' Avenant illustrates this line. The plaster wall on the west side of the temple of Minerva-polias bears the following inscription, cut in very deep characters: "Quod non fecerunt Goli, Hoc fecerunt Scoti." Hobhouse's Travels in Greece, &c. p. 345. Ten thousand schemes of petulance and pride "Mortal! (the blue-eyed maid resumed once more} Be all his sons as senseless as their sire: Still with his hireling artists let him prate, "Nor will this conduct [the sacrilegious plunder of ancient edifices] appear wonderful in men, either by birth, or by habits and grovelling passions, barbarians, (i.e. Goths) when in our own times, and almost before our own eyes, persons of rank and education have not hesitated to disfigure the most ancient and the most venerable monuments of Grecian architec ture; to tear the works of Phidias and Praxiteles from their original position, and demolish fabrics, which time, war, and barbarism, had respected during twenty centuries. The French, whose rapacity the voice of Long of their patron's gusto let them tell, To sell, and make (may shame record the day) Meantime, the flattering feeble dotard West, Europe has so loudly and so justly censured, did not incur the guilt of dismantling ancient edifices: they spared the walls, and contented themselves with statues and paintings, and even these they have collected and arranged in halls and galleries for the inspection of travellers of all nations; while, if report does not deceive us, our plunderers have ransacked the temples of Greece to sell their booty to the highest bidder, or, at best, to piece the walls of some obscure old mansion with fragments of Parian marble and of attic sculpture." (Eustace's Classical Tour through Italy, p. 158.) "But alas! all the monuments of Roman magnificence, all the remains of Grecian taste, so dear to the artist, the historian, the antiquary; all depend on the will of an arbitrary sovereign, and that will is influenced too often by interest or vanity, by a nephew, or a sycophant. Is a new palace to be erected (at Rome) for an upstart family? the Coliseum is stripped to furnish materials. Does a foreign minister wish to adorn the bleak walls of a northern castle with antiques? the temples of Theseus or Minerva must be dismantled, and the works of Phidias or Praxiteles be torn from the shattered frieze -That a decrepid uncle, wrapt up in the religious duties of his age and station should listen to the suggestions of an interested nephew, is natural; and that an oriental despot should undervalue the master-pieces of Grecian art, is to be expected; though in both cases the consequences of such weakness are much to be lamented; but that the minister of a nation, famed for its knowledge of the language, and its veneration for the monuments of ancient Greece, should have been the prompter and the instrument of these destructions, is almost incredible. Such rapacity is a crime against all ages and all generations: it deprives the past of the trophies of their genius and the title deeds of their fame; the present of the strongest inducements to exertion, the noblest exhibitions that curiosity can contemplate; the future, of the master-pieces of art, the models of imitation. To guard against the repetition of such depredations is the wish of every man of genius, the duty of every man in power, and the common interest of every civilized nation." (Ibid. p. 269.) ***This attempt to transplant the temple of Vesta from Italy to England may, perhaps, do honour to the late lord Bristol's patriotism, or to his magnificence; but it cannot be considered as an indication of either taste or judgment." (Ibid. p. 419.) Mr. West on seeing the " Elgin collection" (I suppose we shall hear of the Aber-show and Jack Shephard's collection) declared bimself a mere "Tyro in art." VOL. VI.-P |