Athens still contains near ten thousand inhabitants, and has lately been enclosed by a wall, to defend it from the irruptions of the Albanians, who are ever ripe for a revolt, and have several times plundered the town. The neighbourhood abounds with olive trees, and the French have established a small factory for the culture of them. The ancient citadel is always kept in a state of defence; and, being situated on the flat surface of an unassailable rock, it is only to be subdued by famine, or a bombardment. But what most renders it an object of curiosity, is, its containing the superb Temple of Minerva, the most celebrated work of the illustrious Pericles. But, alas! of this magnificent pile, only enough is left to give us a faint idea of its former grandeur, and to make us lament the unhappy fate of so sublime an edifice. The columns which supported the south side, and part of the front, are still standing, with some elegant metopes, which represent the exploits of the different heroes of Athens, and the battle of the Amazons: but these are every year falling down, from a violent shock the remains of the temple received, about a century ago, from the Venetians, who, in bombarding the citadel, blew up a powder magazine within it. From these ruins of fallen greatness, it is a pleasant relief to turn our eyes to the Temple of Theseus, which, being converted into a Greek church, is still perfect. Here the sympathetic soul enjoys the generous glow of admiration, in contemplating a monument of gratitude to a departed hero, and the satisfaction of seeing, that the ravages of more than two thousand years have not been able to affect the work of a grateful people in honor of a patriotic Prince: so may we hope, that, to the last day, it will remain a living proof of the generosity of the one, and of the merit of the other. Theseus was the great grandson of Cecrops, and, like him, corrected the wandering manner in which his people lived, and formed them into civil societies; whence he is justly called the second founder of Athens. In the preceding narration, I took no notice of the exploits of this Prince, because they are stories we have been accustomed to hear from our cradles, and, although founded on truth, are generally classed among those of the fabulous kind. For the same reason, I passed over the death of his successor, Mnestheus, at the siege of Troy, as well the expedition for the Golden Fleece, and the other events in which Athens was concerned previous to the invasion of the Persians.