version to Protestantism. A Protestant church has become self-supporting in Athens, however, under the unwearied exertions of a missionary who was educated in America.

Many of the remains of ancient Greek art have been removed from their country. The Romans began the spoliation of Greece. Thousands of Greek statues were carried to Rome. In the early years of this century the sculptures from the pediment of the Parthenon at Athens, with most of the frieze, one of the Caryatids of the Erechtheum, and the frieze of the temple of Apollo at Bassæ-all were taken to London. For years Greek art could be studied to better advantage in the British Museum than anywhere else in the world; this remains true of the best period of Greek art. The statues of the temple of Egina were taken to Munich. These marbles were carried away, by permission of the Turkish authorities, only a few years before the Greeks asserted their independence.

Their loss has been a sore trial to the Greeks, who consider as an insult the British gift of plaster casts of these treasures. These antiquities are to the Greeks no mere works of art, and illustrations of ancient culture; they are heirlooms -the cherished memorials of their honored ancestors. Greece is still too poor to conduct extensive excavations, but she refuses to allow richer nations to carry away her treasures. She admits others to search for what is hidden beneath her soil, but claims the treasure-trove. A strict law forbids the exportation of antiquities, and the custom-house officials go through the forms of examining the trunks of the traveller as he leaves Greece, searching for vases, inscriptions, and the like. The law is constantly evaded, however. A bronze cuirass may be worn on the person, under an overcoat; packages may be handed up at one side of the ship while the customhouse officers are busy at the other side. Dealers sell large objects and large quantities of other objects, with the agree

ment to deliver to the purchaser beyond the customs frontier. Large reliefs appear from time to time in the museums of Europe with a vague statement of "Greek workmanship;" after a few months or years, when the course of the transaction can be less easily traced, the museum catalogue states more definitely, "Found in Attica," "From Corinth," or "Spartan."

Excavations in the city of Athens have been difficult, since the modern city is built over the ruins of the old town, but hardly a cellar is dug or a foundation laid without bringing up some fragment of sculpture or of an old inscription. Nearly three years ago the Greek Archæological Society began systematic excavations

on the Acropolis. The discoveries have been even unexpectedly interesting. We are in a fair way to know as much of the Acropolis of Pisistratus, in the middle of the sixth century B.C., as we knew before of that of Pericles, a century later.

The Acropolis was the seat of the most

walls were built, and into them were laid drums of columns, and fragments of the architrave of the temples which Xerxes destroyed. The lower parts of the summit were filled with earth until the level surface was formed which re

ancient and hallowed sanctuaries of the Athenians. It is about a fifth of a mile in its greatest length, 400 feet in its greatest breadth, and about 350 feet high. The sides are very steep, except on the west, where only a slight valley separates it from Mars' Hill. The recent excavations show that after the battle of Salamis, 480 B.C., and the withdrawal of the Persian army, the Athenians determined to make their Acropolis the seat of more magnificent temples and statues than ever before.

High

mained for more than 2,300 years. Old statues of Athena or her priestesses, which were mutilated by the soldiers of Xerxes, received honorable burial near the wall; they could not be repaired, nor could they in decency be sent to the lime-kiln. These archaic statues afford more material for the study of the early period of Greek art than any museum of Europe possesses. The foundations of the old temple of Athena have been discovered, and architectural fragments of a temple of porous stone, which must have been built in a very early age. Within the last few weeks, on the northern side of the Acropolis, steps have been found in connection with ruins of what seems to have been a prehistoric palace, like that at Tiryns.

Antiquities found on the Acropolis are preserved in a small museum there; those found at Olympia are in a large local museum. Other works of art discovered in Greece are gathered in the Central Museum at Athens, except objects of inferior importance, and inscriptions. Antiquities in Athens are so abundant as almost to shock the foreign archæologist. The grounds of the Central Museum resemble a country graveyard with its thick set marble slabs. Some of the statues in the muse

um lie upon the floor like corpses on a battlefield. The material accumulates more rapidly than it can be prepared for exhibition. For lack of room many a dainty bit is left unprotected, exposed to the elements and to tourists' ham

mers.

In general, however, Athenian antiquities are much better placed than those of Rome; the environment forms a much more suitable frame.

Archæological study has been pursued at Athens with vigor by both Greeks and foreigners. The French were the first to establish a national School of Archæology at Athens, more than forty years ago, in 1846. The Germans founded at Athens, in 1874, a branch of the "German Institute for Archæological Correspondence." German students in Greece do not hold the same relation to the institute that the French students hold to their school: the institute was not established primarily for the sake of the students, but the German students' scholarships were created because of the opportunities afforded by the institute. The Archæological Institute of America in 1881 appointed a committee on the establishment of an American School of Classical Studies at Athens. In view of the difficulty of raising a sufficient sum to put the school on a permanent footing before the enterprise was shown to be practicable and desirable, the committee secured the cooperation of the most prominent colleges of the country, and the School was opened in October, 1882. The number of colleges associated in this work is now eighteen. The directors have been sent to Athens on an annual appointment, without expense to

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the school. During each of the last two years, seven American scholars have been enrolled as regular students of the school (a number larger than that of the students in the French or German schools), while others have been admitted to share its privileges. In addition to the studies of the individual members of the school, under the general guidance of the director, the school has conducted excavations at Thoricus and at Sicyon, bringing to light many interesting archæological facts and one valuable statue of Dionysus. A few months ago, it commenced excavations at the foot of the northeast slope of Mount Pentelicus, near the Marathonian plain, uncovering various and important remains of works of art, and among other inscriptions one which proves that this was the site of the ancient Icaria, the birthplace of the Greek drama.

In 1884 the Greek government offered to the school a beautiful and valuable site for a building, on the slope of Mount Lycabettus. Friends of the school contributed $25,000 to erect a suitable building. This building is now completed; it contains apartments for the

director and his family, a large library, and several chambers for the members of the school.

The present organization of the school, with an annual director, was recognized from the first as a temporary expedient, with some advantages, but with an over

He is recognized as eminently fit for the position: a native of New York City, a former student of Columbia College, a graduate of the University of Heidelberg, at present Reader on Archæology and Keeper of the Fitzwilliam Museum, in Cambridge, England, he unites in himself a large number of important qualifications.

But only a small part of the permanent endowment is secured as yet. While the school has no support from the government, like the similar institutions of France and Germany, it relies on the wise liberality of our men of wealth and culture. Greece seems to be far away, but this enterprise brings ancient Greece to our doors. This contact with the land and air of Greece, this personal study of the monuments and topography, promises a better appreciation of ancient life and history, and thus a better appreciation of the literature of the ancient Greeks.

Greece was under foreign domination for nearly two thousand years. She was conquered by the Romans, 146 B.C.; her cities were destroyed or depopu

ful and degrading. The Greeks were "the wretched slaves of a race of rapacious oppressors." The Turkish rule became a European scandal. A reaction was sure to follow, and in the spring of 1821 a number of the Greeks declared the independence of their country and put themselves under the protection of England. Their war for independence lasted about as long as our own, exciting the interest and sympathy of all civilized nations, but especially of America.

In October, 1827, the Turkish fleet was nearly annihilated in the harbor of Navarino (the Pylus of the Homeric Nestor) by English, French, and Russian ships of war. France expelled the Turks from Peloponnesus in the next year. The Powers which had come to the rescue of Greece fixed her frontier in 1829, but left her as a subject of Turkey; the Acropolis of Athens was still in Turkish hands. In 1830 Greece was declared an independent kingdom, under the protection of Great Britain, France, and Russia. The Greeks had no royal family, no hereditary nobility; the aristocratic families of the Byzantine Empire had become extinct; they had no capable

leaders. They began their national life with the heavy burden of the worst political habits, a debt, and a devastated country. They were manifestly unprepared for a republic, and they had no king.

In February, 1832, the throne was offered to Otho of Bavaria (elder brother of the present Prince Regent, Luitpold, of that country), who was at that time a boy not yet seventeen years old. He was declared "King of Greece, by the grace of God." This first kingdom was a kindly but ill-judged attempt to make Greece a small Bavaria. Otho reached his new kingdom early in 1833, accompanied by a Bavarian cabinet and a small army. Bavarians were appointed to stations of high authority and pay. The Greeks had no control of the government for

five years. They felt that it was conducted in the interest of the

Wales. He arrived in Greece in the autumn of 1863, a few months before he was eighteen years old. Again the country suffered from the youth and inexperience of its king. In 1867 he married the grand-duchess Olga of Russia (a cousin of the present czar), who was born in 1851. She is called the most amiable woman in Europe, and has interested herself in many schemes for the welfare of the people, in hospitals, and other charities. The queen has six children. The heir-apparent, Constantine, Duke of Sparta, who was born in 1868, is said to have a fine character, without brilliancy of mind. The present constitution of the kingdom was adopted in 1864. The king does not rule; he is content to reign. The responsibility for

his acts rests with his ministers. He is a gentleman, kindly and unostentatious, and has exhibited much good sense; but he has lacked the enthusiasm which would have endeared him to the hearts of his warm-blooded subjects. The people were disappointed that he did not visit

Germans, many of whom were driven out in 1843 by a mild revolution. In 1862 Otho withdrew from the country. The Greeks had lost hope of prosperity under his rule, and he had no son on whom their hopes could rest. Although Otho did not formally abdicate his throne, the Protecting Powers sought another king for the country, and offered the throne to Prince George of Denmark, a brother of the Princess of

Thessaly to inspect the troops on the frontier, when war with Turkey seemed imminent. He is thought to be weary of his position, and, more than once rumors have prevailed of his approaching abdication.

The Greek parliament has but one chamber. The number of deputies was reduced two years ago from 245 to 150. These are elected for a term of four years, and receive $400 pay for each an