378 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



see the assembly and the ballot ? and where the democratic multitude 

 sporting their liberty ? where the popular elections, the Agora, the 

 courts, the beautiful Acropolis, yonder neighboring Salamis, and the 

 Strait, Psyttaleia, the field of Marathon, — all Hellas, all Ionia, all the 

 Cyclades in Athens ? Shall I quit all these and my Glycera, stray 

 away to Egypt, to get gold and silver and wealth ? And Glycera 

 beyond the sea from me ? Will not all this be poverty without her ? ' 

 " These may well be supposed to be the arguments that kept Me- 

 nander at home. Athens even now is in many respects the most en- 

 chanting city in the world. Its wonderful ruins, its translucent air, 

 its blue skies, — the Cephissus, the Ilissus, — the weird old olives of 

 the Academy, — the play of golden beams peering over Hymettus at 

 dawn, the purple veil of the mountains at evening, — the silver moon- 

 light poured over the columns of the Parthenon on the Acropolis, — 

 the remnants of the theatre, — the Bema, — ^gina, S»^- iis, — the 

 memories of ^schylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Menander, Socrates, 

 Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, — the urbanity of its present inhabi- 

 tants, — the University and its learned professors, — make it even 

 now the darling of the East, the beloved object of every scholar's 

 affections, the hope and pride of regenerated Hellas. So I think 

 Menander was right in rejecting the princely offers of the Ptolemies. 

 His works were none the less popular there ; copies were to be found 

 in all the libraries ; they were the favorite subjects of the criticism 

 of the professors in the Museum and the Serapeum. They were known 

 and read at Constantinople probably down to the time of the Crusaders. 

 It was natural that sentences from works so esteemed should become 

 common property, — should be quoted by writers, selected by school- 

 masters, copied by schoolboys. But it is singular that one of them 

 should make its first appearance in modern times at New York. " 



Mr. G. C. Ayling exhibited to the Academy a new quad- 

 rant, known as Hedgcock's Quadrant, by which he claimed 

 to be able to determine the position of any point on the earth's 

 surface without the aid of sun, moon, or stars. On motion, 

 the instrument was referred to a committee consisting of Pro- 

 fessor Levering, J. I. Bowditch, G. P. Bond, and Dr. B. A. 

 Gould. 



Professor Agassiz said that similarity of form is an essential 

 element in his definition of Families in the animal kingdom. 

 Although this is true in general, he had found great difficulty 



