Tldlcs,--’Phalereus and Pimusl 
This san wl'icli. perhaps, beamed on the 
last moment of the poor girl of Megara, 
batl wirnessec! the death of the brilliant 
lAspasia. This picture of i\ttica, this 
S{>eciacle whicli I contemplated, had 
been surveyed by eyes that have been 
closed above two thousand years. 1 too 
shall soon be no more, and other mortals, 
transitory as myself, will make the same 
reflexions on tlie same ruins. Our lives 
and our hearts are in the hands of God; 
let him then do with both what he 
pleases. 
RELICS. 
On descendinir from the citadel I 
picked up a piece of marble belonging to 
the Parthenon ; 1 had also pieserved a 
fragment of the tomb of Agamemnon; 
and [ have since made a practice of 
taking; something; away w-ith me from the 
ir.unuinents I have visited. They are 
not such sfilendid memorials of my pe¬ 
regrinations as those collected by M. de 
Choiseul and Lord Elgin ; but I am sa¬ 
tisfied with them. I preserve thenr wnth 
as much care as the little marks of friend¬ 
ship which I have received from my 
iiosts, among others, a bone box given 
me by Father Munoz, at Jaffa. When I 
survey these trifles, they immediately re- 
ininrt me of my pilgrimages and adven¬ 
tures. Ulysses returned home with large 
chests full of the rich presents made him 
by thePhaeacians; I returned, to rrjy home 
with a dozen stones picked up at Sparta, 
Athens, Argos, and Corinth; tliree or 
four small heads in terra cotta given me 
by, M. Fauvel, some chaplets, a bottle of 
the water of the Jordan, another from 
the Dead Sea, a few' reeds from the Nile, 
& piece of marble from Carthage, and a 
piaster inou'ldin.g from the Alhambra. T 
have spent fifty thousand francs on my 
tour, and left behind me my linen and 
my arms as presents. Had it lasted a 
little iorieer, I should have returned on 
foot vvitii a w'hite staff in rr.y hand. Un¬ 
fortunately I should rot have found, on 
reacliijig my native latui, a kind brother 
to say to me, like the old man in the 
Arabian Nights: “ Here, brother, area 
thousand sequins for you, buy camels and 
give up travoiling.” 
THE PIIALEREUS AND PIRAEUS, 
On the 25 th, vve mounted our horses 
very early, and, leaving the city, took the 
road to the Phalereus. As vve approached 
the sea, tiie coast gradually became 
more elevated, and terminated in heights, 
sinuosities of which foi’iDj to tho oust 
649 
and west, the harbours of Phalereus^ 
Munychia, and Piraeus. On the beach 
of the Phalereus, vve discerned traces of 
the walls that encompasied the port, and 
other ruins which were mere heaps of 
rubbish; these were, perhaps, the tem¬ 
ples of Juno and Ceres. Near this spot, 
lay the little field and tomb of Aristides.. 
We went down to the harbour, a circular 
basin, with a bottom of fine sand, ca¬ 
pable of containing about fifty boats. 
From the harbour of Phalereus vve 
proceeded to that of Munycliia, wiiich is 
of an oval figure, and rather larger than 
the former. Lastly, turning the extre¬ 
mity of a craggy hill, and advancing froiii 
cape to cape, we reached the Piraeus. 
If Chandler was astonished at the 
solitude of the Pirsus, I can affirm lliaj; 
J was not less struck by it than he. We 
had explored a desert coast, vve had sur¬ 
veyed three harbours, and in these three 
harbours had not perceived one single 
vessel. Noiiiing was to be seen but ruins, 
rocks, and the sea; and no sound met ttie 
ear, save the cries of the kingsfisher, and 
the dashing of the surges against the 
tomb of Themistoclesj producing an in¬ 
cessant murmur in the abode of eternal 
silence. Washed away by the billows, 
the ashes of the conqueror of Xerxes 
reposed beneath them, commingled with 
the bones of the vanquislied Persians. 
In vain my eye sought the temple of 
Venus, the long gallery and the; status 
emblematic of the people of Athens: the 
image of that inexorable people was for 
ever fallen near the well, to which tij 3 
exiled citizens repaired, to no purpose, 
to reclaim their country. Instead of 
those superb- arsenals, those porticoes 
whence the gallies were launched, those 
A>:oi’s, reverberating the shouts of the 
seamen; instead of those edifices, resem¬ 
bling the city of Rhodes in their general 
appearance and beauty; I saw nothing 
but a dilapidated convent and a maga¬ 
zine. Here, in a vvretched hntofvvood, 
a Turkish custom-house officer sits’ all 
tlie year round, the lonely sentinel of 
the coast, and a model of stupid patience; 
whole months elapse without his wit¬ 
nessing the arrival of a single vessel. 
Such is the present deplorable condition 
of these once-famous harbours. 
It is near four miles from Athens to 
the Phalereus; three or four from the 
Phalereus to the Pitaeus, following the 
windings of the coast; and five from 
Piraius to Athen.s; so that, on our return 
to the city, we liad been about twelve 
miles. We made haste to dine^ and at 
