In the stately procession which sweeps across the stage of my imagination, I see Socrates, Zeno, Plato, and Xenophon; I see Aristotle, Solon, Pericles, Sophocles, and Demosthenes. These are the men that gave Greece her glory; these are the men who, with the fulcrum of thought planted their feet upon the Acropolis and moved the world. Borrowing the thought from Canon Farrar, though not using his exact language, I may say, “Under Greek influence human freedom put forth its most splendid power; human intellect displayed its utmost sublimity and grace; art reached its most consummate perfection; poetry uttered alike its sweetest and sublimest strains and philosophy attuned to the most perfect music of human expression, its loftiest and deepest thought. Had it been possible for the world, by its own wisdom, to know God; had it been in the power of man to turn into bread the stones of the wilderness; had perfect happiness lain within the grasp of sense, or been among the rewards of culture; had it been granted to man’s unaided power to win salvation by the gifts and graces of his own nature, and make for himself a new Paradise in lieu of that lost Eden before whose gates still wars the fiery sword of the Cherubim,—then such ends would have been achieved by these old Athenians. Nor did their influence die with their bodies; it is alive to-day, and it will be transmitted from generation to generation, until the stars grow dim and moons shall wax and wane no more.” CHAPTER XXIV. ASIA MINOR AND THE ISLAND OF PATMOS. Smyrna—Its Commerce—Its Population—Famed Women—Home of the Apostle John—One of the Seven Asiatic Churches—Martyrdom and Tomb of Polycarp—Emblematic Olive Tree—Out into the Interior of Asia Minor—Struck by Lightning—Visit to Ephesus—Birthplace of Mythology—Temple of Diana—Relics of the Past—Homer’s Birthplace—A Baptist Preacher and a Protracted Meeting—John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary—Timothy’s Grave—Cave of the Seven Sleepers—Return to Smyrna—Sail to Patmos—Patmos, the Exiled Home of the Apostle John—The Island of Rhodes and the Colossus—Death and Disease on the Ship—Quarantined—A Watery Grave—Hope Anchored within the Vail. SMYRNA is the most important city in Asia Minor, and one of the principal commercial points of the Ottoman Empire. I am told that the annual exports and imports amount to more than $15,000,000. The population of the city is estimated at 200,000, representing seven different nationalities and speaking, therefore, seven separate and distinct languages. From appearances, one would judge that the city was built soon after the flood, and that it had seldom been repaired. The houses are old and dilapidated, the streets are narrow, crooked and filthy. The people generally are ignorant, superstitious and fanatical, and wear various strange and grotesque costumes.