'228 ATHENS. 
CHAP, with an advantageous opinion of what we were 
come to see, we found the image our fancy 
had preconceived greatly inferior to the real 
object." Yet Wheler, who upon such a subject 
cannot be considered as of equal authority with 
Stuart, says of the monuments of antiquity yet 
remaining in Athens 1 , "I dare prefer them be- 
fore any place in the world, Rome only excepted" 
If there be existing upon the earth any buildings 
which may fairly be brought into a comparison 
with the Parthenon, they are the temples of 
Ptestwn in Lucania ; but even these can only be 
so with reference to their superior antiquity, to 
their severe simplicity, and to the perfection of 
design visible in their structure : in graceful 
proportion, in magnificence, in costliness of 
materials, in splendid decoration, and in every 
thing that may denote the highest degree of 
improvement to which the Doric style of 
architecture ever attained, they are vastly infe- 
rior. This is at least the author's opinion. 
Lusieri, however, entertained different senti- 
ments ; and his authority upon such a subject 
is much more worthy of the reader's atten- 
tion. Lusieri had resided at Peestum ; and had 
(l) Journey into Greece, Book V. p.3. r 7- Land. 1682. 
