ATHENS. 231 
else, we have been careful to preserve. For CHAP. 
our own parts, in viewing the Parthenon, we 
were so much affected by its solemn appear- 
ance, and so much dazzled by its general 
splendour and magnificence, that we should 
never have ventured this critical examination of 
the parts composing it ; nor could we be per- 
suaded entirely to acquiesce in the opinion 
thus founded upon a comparison of it with the 
Posidonian and sEginetan buildings. Often as 
it has been, described, the spectator who for 
the first time approaches it finds that nothing 
he has read can give any idea of the effect 
produced in beholding it. Yet was there once 
found in England a writer of eminence, in his 
profession as an architect 1 , who recommended 
the study of Roman antiquities in Italy and in 
France, in preference to the remains of Grecian 
architecture in ATHENS ; and who, deciding 
upon the works of Phidias, Callicrates, and Ictinus, 
without ever having had an opportunity to 
examine them but in books and prints, ventured 
(l) See a Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture, by 
Sir William. Chambers, pp.19, 21, &c. Third edition. Land. 1791. 
Also Reveley's Reply, in his Pref. to the Third Volume of Stuart's Antic}. 
of Athens, p. 10. Lend. 1794. 
