650 Chatcauhriand's Travels in Greece^ Palestiney 
four in the afternoon set out on another 
excursion. 
We went out of tlie town on the side 
next to Mount Hymettus. My host 
took me to the village of Angelo Kipous, 
where, as he conjectures, he has disco¬ 
vered the temple of Venus in the gar¬ 
dens. We came to the Cephisus, which 
1 had already saluted lower down on my 
way from Eleusis. Vve then turned 
back, stillcontinumg.our ride through the 
iofest of olive-trees. We left on the 
right a small eminence covered with 
rocks. This was Colone, at the foot of 
which formerly stood the village con¬ 
taining the retreat of Sophocles, and the 
place wtiere that great tragic poet drew' 
the last tears from the eyes of the fatiier 
of Aiuiiione. We followed, for some 
distance, the Brazen Way, where are to 
be seen vestiges of the temple of the 
Furies; and then, on approaching Athens, 
we rambled for a considerable time in 
the environs of the Academy! Jsoihing 
now marks this retirement of the philo-. 
Sophie sages._ Its first plantains fell by 
the axe of Sylla, and those with which 
Adrian probably caused it to be em¬ 
bellished, have not escaped the ravages 
of succeeding barbarians. The altars 
of Cupid Prometheus, and tlie Muses, 
are no more; every spark divine is extin¬ 
guished in the groves w here Plato so oft 
received inspirations. 
It had been dark an hour before we 
thought of returning to Athens; -the sky 
was studded with stars, and the air in¬ 
comparably soft, pure, and transparent; 
our horses, went at a slow pace, and we 
ba,d both become silent. The way 
which we w’ere pursuing, was probably 
the ancient road to the academy, bor¬ 
dered by the tombs of such citizens as 
bad fallen for their country, and those 
of the greatest men of Greece. Here 
veposed the ashes of Thrasybuius, Pe¬ 
ricles, Chabrias, Timotheus, tiarmo- 
dius, and Aristogiton. 
The tombs are destroyed; the illus¬ 
trious dead, whom the Athenians had 
placed without the city, as for an ad¬ 
vanced post, rose not to defend it, but 
suSered the Tartars to trample it under 
their feet. Time, violence, and the 
plough, as Chandler observes, have le¬ 
velled every thing. In this place the 
plough is superfluous; and that single 
remark will convey a more accurate 
idea of the desolation of Greece, than 
ail the reflections in wldch X could 
dulge. 
DESPOTISM. 
God forbid that I should fall, at the 
present day, into those declamations 
which have brought such calamities upon 
our country ; but, if I had ever thought, 
with men for whose character and ta¬ 
lents I have otherwise the Jiighest res- 
pect, that an absolute government is the 
best of ail governments, a few montlis' 
residence in Turkey would have com¬ 
pletely cured me of that opinion. 
The travellers who are content to visit 
civilized Eurojie are extremely fortunate; 
they penetrate not into those once-ce¬ 
lebrated regions, where the heart is 
wounded at every step, where living 
ruins every moment divert the attention 
from the ruins of stone and marble. In 
vain you would give full scope in Greece 
to the illusions of the imagination; the 
mournful truth incessantly pursues you. 
Cabins of dried mud,'more fit for the 
abode of brute animals tli«an of man ; 
women and children in rags, running - 
away at the approach of the stranger and 
the janissary; the afirighted goats them¬ 
selves scouring over the hills, and the 
dogs alone remaining to receive you with 
their balking — such is the scene that 
dispels the charm which fancy would 
fain throw over the objects before you. 
Tile Peloponnese is a desert: since 
the Russian expedition, the Turkish 
yoke has borne w'ith encreased weight 
on the inhabitants of the Morea; part 
of its population has been slaughtered 
by the Albanians. Nothing meets the 
eye but villages destroyed with fire and 
sword. In the towns, as at Misitra, 
whole suburbs are deserted; and I have 
often travelled fifteen leagues in the 
country without coming to a single ha¬ 
bitation. Grinding oppression, outrages 
of every kind complete the destruction 
of agriculture and human life. To drive 
a Greek peasant from his cabin, to carry 
oiT iiis wife and children, to put him to 
death on the slightest pretext, is mere 
sport with the lowest aga of the most 
insignificant village. Reduced to the 
lowest depth of misery, the Morean 
abandons fiis native land, and repairs to 
Asia in quest of a lot less severe. Vain 
hope I He caiiiuH; escape his destiny; 
he there finds other cadis and other 
pachas, even in the sands of Jordan, and 
ill the deserts of Ealmyra. 
Attica, with somewhat less wretched¬ 
ness, is not less completely enslaved. 
Athens is under the immediate protec- 
tign of the chief of the black eunuchs of 
