OF PART THE SECOND. XV 
aware, that, in very many cases, these remains 
are the only beacons we can have, to guide our 
course, in penetrating the thick darkness now 
covering this '' land of lost Gods and men ;" 
and in adapting passages from anticnt authors 
for the illustration of its antiquities and history. 
Such objects, noticed by one traveller, are 
afterwards made use of by another, as clues to 
discoveries of much greater importance. It 
sometimes happens, that a large portion of 
antient history may be proved to have a con- 
nection with the meanest vestige of a former 
age. This is particularly true oi Inscriptions: 
the scholar, who seeks only the gratification of 
his literary taste by the archdical characters, or 
by the sense conveyed in an in^ription, may 
deem the insertion of such poor fragments as 
contain only a single name, or ^ imperfect 
legend (perhaps consisting of half a line, and 
sometimes of half a word), altogether unneces- 
sary. He will be ready to ask, wherefore an 
inscription at Marathon, containing only the 
letters KAIN, and these too in very large 
capitals, was deemed worthy of a place in this 
work ? To which there is this answer : It was 
necessary to prove that the ruins, where these 
letters appeared, were truly Grecian; and to 
afford, by an accurate specimen of the 
