296 ATHENS. 
CHAP, removed the precious relics from the Isle of 
Scyros, which were here enshrined ; and the 
circumstances of the brazen-headed lance and 
sword, found with the bones said to have 
belonged to Theseus, denote weapons of the 
remotest ages 1 : but the manner in which the 
place of his original interment had been pointed 
out 2 , calls to mind the juggling of a later period, 
when the mother of Constantine sought to dis- 
cover the real timber on which the Messiah had 
suffered crucifixion : so easy has it been in 
every age to gratify a credulous and super- 
stitious people, by delusions of pretended mira- 
cles, and dreams of a particular Providence 
interrupting the order of Nature for purposes 
the most contemptible; although; in the history 
of the world, few instances have occurred 
where a monument of equal magnificence has 
resulted from any idle and stupid fiction. The 
building is believed to bear date from the event 
(1) Eifitij 3 fnxfl rt fAiydXiv fuuartf, ai^un rf retaxxtifiiin *A.xq, *4 
$fat. Plut. in fit. Thes. torn. I. p. 35. Land. 1729. 
(2) *H 2i KOU A.|7 aT/, xau yiuieu rn nifit, iui\iau xaii ^\ifiritri 
vui \wmvtT*i /Ja/3j. u flit iXXi x.tt\ Klfun sX ri ttiftt, tu; i> rtTf 
<ri^i ixiiftv j-i-ytctrritt, xeti Qi1.tr ifjui-JMitf i$x*tv(i7t, AETOT TINA TOflON 
BOTXOEIAH^ KOnTONTOS, t f*ei, ri rrifutn xeti S/a^TXX<irj rut 
Sfvfy, titfi TIII Tu%y rvfif(*rr*s, aiirxa^tt. Pint, in I'll. ThtS. p. 35, 
Loud. 1729. 
