I now understand why the Greeks were such great poets; and above all, I can account, it seems to me, for the harmony, the unity, the perfection, the uniform excellence of all their works of art. They lived in a perpetual commerce with external nature, and nourished themselves upon the spirits of its forms. Their theaters were all open to the mountains of the sky. Their columns, the ideal type of a sacred forest, with its roof of interwoven tracery, admitted the light and wind. The odor and the freshness of the country penetrated the cities. Their temples were mostly unparthaic; and the flying clouds, the stars and the deep sky were seen above. Oh, but for that series of wretched wars which terminated in the Roman conquest of the world; but for the Christian religion which put the finishing stroke on the ancient system; but for those changes that conducted Athens to its ruin--to what an eminence might not humanity have arrived! FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 37: From an essay written sometime in 1820-21, and suggested by an article on poetry which his friend, Thomas Love Peacock, had contributed to the _Literary Miscellany_. John Addington Symonds, one of Shelley's biographers, cites this paper as containing some of the finest prose writing of Shelley.] [Footnote 38: One of Shelley's many letters to his friend, Thomas Love Peacock, of which Symonds says: "Taken altogether, they are the most perfect specimens of descriptive prose on the English language; never overcharged with color, vibrating with emotions excited by the stimulating scenes of Italy, frank in criticisms, and exquisitely delicate in observation. Their transparent sincerity and unpremeditated grace, combined with natural finish of expression, make them masterpieces of a style at once familiar and elevated." It was among the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla that Shelley wrote his poem "Prometheus Unbound." Of this poem Shelley wrote from Florence on December 26, 1819, a letter the original of which is now owned in New York by Louis V. Ledoux: "My 'Prometheus' is the best thing I ever wrote."] [Footnote 39: A letter to Thomas Love Peacock, dated "Naples, Jan. 26, 1819."] GEORGE GROTE Born in 1794, died in 1871; educated at the Charterhouse; entered his father's bank in 1810 and devoted himself thenceforth to banking; elected to Parliament in 1833, serving until 1841; published his "History of Greece" in 1846-56; wrote also "Plato and Other Companions of Socrates," which was published in 1865. I THE MUTILATION OF THE HERMAE[40] After between two and three months of active preparations, the expedition[41] was almost ready to start, when an event happened which fatally poisoned the prevalent cheerfulness of the city. This was the mutilation of the Hermae, one of the most extraordinary events in all Grecian history.