300 A T H E N S. 
CHAP, the rock, facing this area, are niches for the 
y 
> ' ; votive tablets ; the characteristic and most 
genuine marks of places held in any peculiar 
degree of consideration throughout the whole 
of Antient Greece, and in every country where 
her colonies extended. To approach the spot 
once dignified by the presence of the greatest 
Grecian orators ; to set our feet where they 
stood ; and actually to behold the place where 
Demosthenes addressed the " Men of Athens," 
calling to mind the most memorable examples 
of his eloquence ; is a gratification of an exalted 
nature. But the feelings excited in viewing the 
Pnyx peculiarly affect the hearts of Englishmen : 
that holy fire, so much dreaded by the Athenian 
tyrants, and which this place had such a remarka- 
ble tendency to agitate, burns yet in Britain : 
it is the very soul of her liberties ; and it 
strengthens the security of her laws ; giving 
eloquence to her Senate, heroism to her arms, 
extension to her commerce, and freedom to her 
determined ; and it cannot be said that our evidence for identifying 
the three, great buildings, the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, the Tiieatre 
of Regilliiy and the Theatre of Bacchus, with the remains which seve- 
rally bear either of these appellations, is altogether satisfactory. 
There is much to be done by future travellers ; and the excavations 
which they may make, by bringing to light many valuable documents, 
ill greatly tend to illustrate the topography of the city. 
