Athens there is a flourishing university, in which 1,200 students are provided with a high class education, and there is a great central school for girls, which, with its branches in the neighbourhood of Athens, provides education for no less than 1,500 pupils.

We all know how eagerly the schools of Athens were resorted to by students from all parts of the world during the time of her great philosophers; and when Greece became a Roman province, the conquerors respected the ancient fame of the city, and in matters of learning became the disciples of their captives. Thus the force of arms gave way to the force of intellect and of spirit. Not only did the flower of Roman intellect, Horace, and Cicero, and many whose names are familiar to us, study at Athens, but people from every part of the world met in the city for one common object-viz., to study the learning that he loved best. He had plenty of choice; there were four schools of philosophy, as in the better days of Athenian learning. The student, says Gibbon, "according to the temper of his mind, might doubt with the Sceptics, or decide with the Stoics-sublimely contemplate with Plato, or severely argue with Aristotle." Round about Athens were the groves in which both mind and body could find refreshment and gain energy: the Garden of the Epicureans, the Portico of the Stoics, the Academy of Plato, and the Lyceum of Aristotle. A city thus somewhat remote from the busy world of commerce was well suited to be the great academy of the world.

But all this came to an end in the sixth century, when Justinian closed the schools of Athens. Paganism was about to die, and Christianity to blot out the remembrance of the old philosophers and of the old gods. The pagan temples became

Christian churches; the Parthenon, dedicated to the virgin goddess Athena, was now dedicated to the Virgin Mother; the Theseum became the church of St. George-ofCappadocia. Thus the schools of learning which had endured for a thousand years ceased to exist, and we hear of them no more.

But schools of Attic learning sprang up in every land. The philosophy of Aristotle was the philosophy of the Middle Ages; Homer was read in all countries; once again intellect set force at defiance. But Athens had lost its renown as a focus of culture, and we have no record of any attempt to re-establish schools of learning until the year 1837, when the present University was founded. That it is a worthy attempt to restore the credit of Athens as a centre of learning no one can deny, when it is remembered that many of the students after completing their university career travel into Asia Minor, and Turkey, and Egypt, and disseminate the learning which they had acquired at home. In fact, the University of Athens has become the University of the East. The city is the centre of Oriental culture. While Greece was in bondage other centres of learning flourished and extended culture. Athens cannot again become the intellectual focus of the world: humanity and letters have moved westward; the march of civilization is from the East to the West; but let us never fail to remember that the sun of all learning rose in the East.

The University of Athens is like all continental universities; no one lives in college; it is a place where lectures are given, examinations held, degrees conferred. The building consists of a finely decorated hall, in which speeches are delivered and the meetings of the Academical body are held; a well-arranged library of 200,000 volumes; a cabinet

of coins, and a number of lecturerooms for different professors. The course of studies is divided into four faculties-theology, law, medicine, and philosophy. The lectures commence at 8 A.M., and in the different departments are given throughout the day till 6 P.M. Theology and law are, apparently, less studied than medicine and philosophy. There are six professors of theology and one sub-professor; nine professors of law and five sub-professors; sixteen professors of medicine and eight sub-professors; and twenty professors of philosophy with four sub-professors.

The faculty of philosophy is a very comprehensive one; under the term is included almost everything except that which we usually call philosophy, viz., logic and metaphysics. There are lectures on Homer, Sophocles, Thucydides, and Pindar; on ancient Greek literature, and on the history of philosophy; on Cicero, Horace, Tibullus, and Juvenal; on Roman literature; on the history of the Middle Ages; on analytical geometry, natural philosophy, kinematics, chemistry, archæology, anthropology, ethnology, zoology, vegetable physiology, and geology. This is a very large section, and no wonder the number of professors should be more than one-third of the whole body.

The professors are a cultivated body of men, many of whom have travelled in Western Europe, while some have studied in France, others in Germany; they are all well acquainted with the literature of their

special subject, whether French, German, or English; but French seems to be the favourite language, and a foreign work is usually made known to them through a French translation.

The wants of the University have caused the appearance of an original Greek literature. The students require text-books, and the professors must supply them with books in their own language. This original literature will, no doubt, largely increase.*

There are several fine private collections of antiquities in Athens. One of them will be remembered by all who have visited the city. In it we saw several bowls of coloured glass of great antiquity, rare specimens of coloured glass bottles, an armlet of gilt bronze, several strigils of bronze, and a great quantity of vases and terra-cotta figures. The same collector has a cabinet of well-selected Greek coins. Antiquities are constantly turning up. Lately a number of very ancient terra-cotta figures have been found at Tanagra, some of which have been sold at from £30 to £50 a piece.

Dr. Schlieman's collection of Trojan antiquities, about which there has been so much controversy of late, is now housed in Athens. Although it is perhaps questionable whether the enthusiastic doctor is right in imagining that he has found the treasure of King Priamos, there can, we think, be no doubt that the gold and silver vessels belong to a period of remote antiquity.

But we must take a last look at