21(> ATHENS. 
companion, Spon, had done the same ; but, with 
all his learning, he has not produced either so 
entertaining a work as that of.Guilletiere, or, 
divested of its inscriptions, one that contains 
more of information. We may therefore, per- 
haps, look to Guilletiere as to the person who 
first drew the attention of English travellers 
towards the Ruins of Athens; for although the 
Letters, giving a description of the city, which 
were published by Martin Crusius, appeared 
nearly a hundred years before, yet those Letters 
The greatest proof, perhaps, of plagiarism that can be adduced, is one of 
this nature ; shewing, that even the errors of an author have been 
transcribed. If either JVheler or his companion had given themselves 
the trouble to consult the authors cited by Meursius, they would have 
found the" very opposite of this assertion expressly stated ; that, of 
above seventy dialects now remaining in Modern Greece, the Athe- 
nian, instead of being the purest, is the most corrupted, and the worst. 
Hip} $1 Tar oiaXiXTuv, ri av xa.i itieotfAi, -roXAJUv oiiffut, xa,i SiccQcpuv, vtrtp 
<r* if&oftrixoireL ; ravrar S* aura^uv, ti rut 'Afaiatur %upirrti. ( Fi'rf. 
Epist. Sim. Cabasilev, ad Marl. Cms. script, anno 1578.) And Theodo- 
sius Zygomalas, in his Letter to the same person, say?, speaking of the 
Greek language in Athens, 'HaXtan Ss fidpfiapas, ifnt rut 'Afweutn % nt 
on vvrvpxst, upiffmf <rtt tl ilvy xardSitifiirpav. rn wo.^.iti, ev% a.v apdp-roi 
Meursii Fortuna Attica, p. 113. L. Bat. 1622. Again, Guilletiere, 
after the passage which the author has cited, concerning the exist- 
ence of the antieut name of the city, says, " Nos ge"ographes ont 
beau nousle vouloiralterer en 1'appellant Setines." JVheler transcribes 
the whole ; and also adds, " I wonder our modern geographers have 
been no better informed concerning so eminent a place, calling it 
most corruptly, in their maps, Setines "... &c. There are many- 
other examples of a similar nature, in the volumes both of Wkeler 
and Spon. 3 
