230 ATHENS. 
CHAP, harmony, elegance, execution, beauty, proportion, 
the Parthenon stands a chef-d'oeuvre ; every 
portion of the sculpture by which it is so highly 
decorated has all the delicacy of a cameo : but 
still there are faults in the building, and proofs 
of negligence, which are not found in the tem- 
ples of Pcestum; and these Lusieri considered as 
striking evidences of the state of public morals 
in the gay days of Pericles; for he said it was 
evident that he had been cheated by his work- 
men. He pointed those defects out to us. 
Above the architrave, behind the metopes and 
trigtyphs, there are vacuities sufficiently spa- 
cious for a person to walk in, which, in some 
instances, and perhaps in all, had been care- 
lessly filled with loose materials; but at P&stum, 
the same parts of the work are of solid stone, 
particularly near the angles of those temples; 
which consist of such prodigious masses, that 
it is inconceivable how they were raised and 
adjusted. In other parts of the Parthenon there 
are also superfluities; which are unknown in 
the buildings of Pcestum, where nothing super- 
fluous can be discerned. These remarks, as 
they were made by an intelligent artist, who, 
with leisure and abilities for the inquiry, has 
paid more attention to the subject than any one 
