ly PREFACE TO THIRD SECTION 
attention which it is now in the author's power 
to bestow upon a topic he has already discussed. 
Mr. Graham, being at Athens, caused an ex- 
cavation to be made near the supposed site of 
the Academy, on the left-hand side of the antient 
paved-way, leading from Athens to Thebes. 
Such was his success, that he discovered and 
brought to this country nearly a thousand vases, 
of a nature and quality so extraordinary, that 
in some instances, as will presently appear, 
nothing like them had ever been seen before. 
Their discovery amounts to nothing less 
than the development of a series of original 
pictures, painted upon the most durable of all 
materials, representing the arts, the mythology, 
the religious ctrtmonies, and the habits of the 
Athenians, in the earliest periods of their 
history. Upon some of these vessels, the colours, 
the gilding, and the lettering, remain as fresh as 
when they were deposited in the tombs of 
Attica, nv/re than two thousands years ago. 
Upon one Athenian tripod chalice is pictured , 
the altercation between Minerva and Neptune'^ 
for Attica ; at which all the superior Gods of"^ 
Greece presided : consequently, this chalice has 
been made to exhibit a complete Pantheon, 
by a series of designs, equal in the style of their 
execution to any of the Grecian paintings 
