. The Burton Holmes lectures;. OP THESIiUS THE OLYMPIAN GAMES 11 I and by a simple reckoning we learn that they have stoodhere for about nine hundred thousand days — that nearly amillion sunsets have gilded these immortal marbles. Andsee how the glory seems to hover over Salamis and thatnarrow strait where was fought the greatest naval battle ofantiquity ! There the Athenians and their allies, under the gal-lant leader Themistocles, routed the Persian*^ Reets of Xerxes, and saved not only thecivilization of the Greeks, but of the AN ATHENIAN VISTA But if at sunset the Acropolis
. The Burton Holmes lectures;. OP THESIiUS THE OLYMPIAN GAMES 11 I and by a simple reckoning we learn that they have stoodhere for about nine hundred thousand days — that nearly amillion sunsets have gilded these immortal marbles. Andsee how the glory seems to hover over Salamis and thatnarrow strait where was fought the greatest naval battle ofantiquity ! There the Athenians and their allies, under the gal-lant leader Themistocles, routed the Persian*^ Reets of Xerxes, and saved not only thecivilization of the Greeks, but of the AN ATHENIAN VISTA But if at sunset the Acropolis en-chants us, moonlight amid the ruins brings anew inspiration and makes of those who linger there nmtepoets who feel within themselves a thousand cantos andstrive vainly to give forth in voices the thoughts that crowdupon them. But since l^yron sang, no poet has found voiceto utter all that these immortal marbles whisper to are reduced, then, to mute wonder and admiration forthe magnificent creations of those old Greeks, which after I 12 THE OLYMPIAN GAMES more than two thousand years of the worlds progress arestill the nearest to perfection. The Greeks of classic times soared higher than thegreatest of our moderns in philosophic thought, in poetry,in the drama, in architecture, and in art. All that is bestin us has been bequeathed to us by them. Let us, then,ere we bid farewell to Athens, freely and gratefully acknowl-edge our infinite indebtedness to Greece !
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectvoyages, bookyear1901
