Rambles and Studies in Greece

Front Cover
Macmillan, 1878 - Art, Greek - 468 pages
 

Contents

IX
215

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 117 - Ce que je puis assurer , c'est que je n'en ai point fait où la vertu soit plus mise en jour que dans celle-ci ; les moindres fautes y sont sévèrement punies...
Page 21 - ... stay their praise — which is ever new and ever old, ever fresh in its decay, ever perfect in its ruin, ever living in its death — the Acropolis of Athens. When I saw my dream and longing of many years fulfilled, the first rays of the rising sun had just touched the heights, while the town below was still hid in gloom. Rock, and rampart, and ruined fanes — all were colored in...
Page 177 - Marathon, further towards the north-west. Had they done this, they might have rounded Pentelicus, and descended the main plain of Attica, from the valley below Dekelea. Perhaps, however, this pass was then guarded by an outlying fort, or by some defences at Marathon itself. The site of the battle is absolutely fixed by the great mound, upon which was placed a lion, which has been carried off, no one knows when or whither.
Page 335 - Caesar restored and rebuilt the ruined city, than it sprang at once again into importance, and among the societies addrest in the Epistles of St. Paul, none seems to have lived in greater wealth or luxury. It was, in fact, well-nigh impossible that Corinth should die. Nature had marked out her site as one of the great thoroughfares of the old world; and it was not till after centuries of blighting misrule by the wretched Turks that she sank into the hopeless decay from which not even another Julius...
Page 177 - Much that is excellent and divine,' says he,1 ' does Athens seem to me to have produced and added to our life, but nothing better than those Mysteries, by which we are formed and moulded from a rude and savage life to humanity ; and indeed in the Mysteries we perceive the real principles of life, and learn not only to live happily, but to die with a fairer hope.
Page 11 - A long and careful survey of the extant literature of ancient Greece has convinced me that the pictures usually drawn of the old Greeks are idealized, and that the real people were of a very different — if you please, of a much lower — type.
Page 106 - Athens, eclipsed by the splendor of the Acropolis. The prospect from the Irish sanctuary has, indeed, endless contrasts to that from the pagan stronghold, but they are suggestive contrasts, and such as are not without a certain harmony. The plains around both are framed by mountains, of which the Irish are probably the more picturesque ; and if the light upon the Greek hills is the fairest, the native color of the Irish is infinitely more rich.
Page 75 - I suppose there can be no doubt whatever that the ruins on the Acropolis of Athens are the most remarkable in the world. There are ruins far larger, such as the Pyramids, and the remains of Karnak. There are ruins far more perfectly preserved, such as the great Temple at Paestum. There are ruins more picturesque, such as the ivy-clad walls of medieval abbeys beside the rivers in the rich valleys of England. But there is no ruin all the world over which combines so much striking beauty, so distinct...
Page 102 - All these lesser things are fallen away and gone ; the sacred caves are filled with rubbish, and desecrated with worse than neglect. The grotto of Pan and Apollo is difficult of access, and when reached, an object of disgust rather than of interest. There are left but the remnants of the surrounding wall, and the ruins of the three principal buildings, which were the envy and wonder of all the civilized world. The...
Page 117 - Les faiblesses de l'amour y passent pour de vraies faiblesses. Les passions n'y sont présentées aux yeux que pour montrer tout le désordre dont elles sont cause; et le vice y est peint partout avec des couleurs qui en font connaître et haïr la difformité.

Bibliographic information