
3] 
From Homer a long line of poets extended, who gave 
renown to Greece equal to that given by the Artists. The 
dramatic art was perfected by Aischylus, Sophocles, and 
others. 
In A.D. 146 Greece became a province of the Roman Empire 
and helped to polish its conquerors. After the fall of repub- 
lican liberty by the conquests of Philip of Macedon, the stage 
of Greek influence spread under his son Alexander the Great 
across the world, and hence.-it has been asserted that “‘ except 
the blind forces of nature, nothing moves in this world which 
is not Greek in its origin.” 
In A.D. 1458, on the coming of the Ottoman power and the 
fall of Constantinople, the Greeks became subject to the Turks. 
In 1821 they claimed their independence, and Lord Byron 
assisted them with his purse, while his burning verse roused 
them to the highest ardour. As he mused an hour alone at 
Marathon, he tells us that ‘‘he dreamed that Greece might still 
be free,’’ and her free institutions to-day testify to its fulfilment. 
Greek remains at historic sites,—from Taormina in Sicily, to 
Greece, Constantinople, Ephesus and Crete, with its won- 
derful mythological haunts, was the pabulum provided 
throughout our tour. The Roman theatre at Taormina 
and the natural beauties seen from thence were well 
described by Mr. W. A. Waddington in a lecture to the Club, 
and were very much enhanced to us on that account. Our 
journey into the fastnesses of the Parnassian Mountains, to 
the ruins of Delphi, where was the most famous of the Greek 
oracles—awoke while seated by the Castalian spring close 
by, memories of Apollo and the Muses. Milton, with his 
garland and singing robes about him, sung of his visit here, 
as also did Byron in an outburst of majestic verse. 
At Athens we saw the finest examples of the Doric, the Ionic 
and the Corinthian styles of architecture. The Acropolis of 
Athens stands out in enviable pre-eminence as containing such 
masterpieces as the Parthenon, the Erectheum, with its quaint 
porch of the Maidens, the Temple of Victory, and the massive 
entrance hall, the Propylea. Emerson, the most thoughtful 
of men, wrote 
‘Earth proudly wears the Parthenon 
As the best gem upon her zone.” 
In the splendid Museum at Athens we surveyed the 
vast array of ancient Greek remains there displayed. A copy 
of the famous Athena and other works by Phidias were re- 
verently gazed upon. Our visit to the unconquered Salamis 
and to Eleusis, the home of the great religious ceremonies to 
Ceres, the goddess of Agriculture, and to other historic sites, 
