Enscribed

TO THE MEMORY OF

CORNELIUS CONWAY FELTON, LL. D.,

TO WHOM,

AS GENIAL INSTRUCTOR AND EVER-FAITHFUL Friend,

THE AUTHOR IS IN GREAT PART INDEBTED

FOR HIS LOVE AND HIS KNOWLEDGE

OF THE ARTS AND LETTERS

OF GREECE.

PREFACE.

T has been. a labour that was its own re

IT

ward to collect these notes of personal observation during a tour in Greece, and combine them with the results of some subsequent study of the principles of Grecian Art. The work was begun, and in part carried through the press, in the hollow calm of the last Presidency; but when the bitter truth was manifest that our republic was doomed to drink the calamities of civil war, the author threw down his pen, for he had no heart to dwell on other themes than the one object of all our interests and all our cares. Yet, having from the first cherished the conviction that it is a time no less of hope than of agony, and believing that his

country's cause is the cause of culture and civilization, as well as of humanity and freedom, deeming it, moreover, the part even of patriotism for those who are devoted to letters or the arts to pursue their calling with no less vigour than before, after the lapse of a twelvemonth he resumed his task. And whither shall they who fondly hope that it may be granted them to make some slight contributions to that part of their nation's glory which is most real and most permanent, turn for instruction and for inspiration rather than to Hellas? She is a teacher of humanity for all ages, and her voice is not silenced by the clash of arms :

"For Greece and her foundations are

Built below the tide of war,

Based on the crystalline sea

Of thought and its eternity."

WEST HAVERFORD, PA., November 27, 1862.