Schools for the study of Hellenic art and culture have been established in Athens by the British, Americans, and French. Every endeavour is now made by the learned societies of the city to preserve the Acropolis monuments, those triumphs of the sculptor's art and mason's craft of which Plutarch wrote: "That which was the chief delight of the Athenians and the wonder of strangers, and which alone serves for a proof that the boasted power and opulence of ancient Greece is not an idle tale, was the magnificence of the temples and public edifices.... The different materials, such as stone, brass, ivory, gold, ebony, and cypress, furnished employment to carpenters, masons, brasiers, goldsmiths, painters, tanners, and other artificers.... Thus works were raised of an astonishing magnitude and inimitable beauty and perfection, every architect striving to surpass the magnificence of the design with the elegance of the execution, yet still the most wonderful circumstance was the expedition with which they were completed." The superb art of the Athenians set an example to the whole of Europe. Everywhere its influence was manifested in architecture and sculptured decoration. Artists with pencil and brush are inspired by the matchless line and form of Phidias. The great English painter, G. F. Watts, haunted the Greek corridors of the British Museum until he became steeped in the beauty of the Elgin Marbles. "The academy training taught him very little; the art of Phidias taught him how to produce great works." Albert Moore, another of our modern painters of genius, found his æsthetic ideal in the art of the Greeks. And so from the little nation of Attica came the mightiest influences of morality, wisdom, and art that the world has known. INDEX AMSTERDAM Alva, Duke of, 221 Banking system, 222 Canals, 221, 228 Churches, 227 Haarlem, siege of, 221 Helder, 220 Museum, 226 Pictures, 227 Rembrandt, 225 Ruyter, de, 227 Spinoza, 223-225 Town hall, 227 Trade, 222-223 Zuyder Zee, 220 ANTWERP Alva, Duke of, 211, 213 Cathedral, 217 Chassé, General, 215 Churches, 218 Forts, 218 Matsys, Quentin, 215 Museum, 216 Painters, 211, 215-216 Philip II., 213 Plantin, 219 Quays, 219 Reynolds, Sir J., 216 Schelde, 211 Siege of, 215 William of Orange, 213 Zoological Garden, 219 ASSISI Chiesa Nuova, 28 Dante, 27 Giotto, 26, 27 Goethe, 28, 29 Ruskin, 27 San Francisco, church of, 25, 26 San Rufino, cathedral of, 28 Santa Maria, church of, 26 Simone, 27 St Bonaventura, 21, 25 St Clare, church of, 28 St Damian, church of, 24 St Francis, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 Via Portica, 28 Vasari, 27 Vespasian, temple of, 20 ATHENS Acropolis, 278, 280, 281 Ægea, isle of, 278 Alcibiades, 275, 276 Alexandria, 267 Archelaus, 277 Apollo, 280 Aristides, 269 Aristotle, 268 Aristophanes, 269 Aspasia, 274 Athene, 279 Attica, 266, 270, 277, 282 Callicrates, 272 Cephissus River, 279 Cimon, 271, 272 Delphi, oracle of, 276