“How terrible is time! his solemn years,

The tombs of all our hopes and all our fears,

In silent horror roll! the gorgeous throne,

The pillared arch, the monumental stone,

Melt in swift ruin; and of mighty climes,

Where Fame told tales of virtues and of crimes,

Where Wisdom taught, and Valor woke to strife,

And Art’s creations breathed their mimic life,

And the young poet when the stars shone high

Drank the deep rapture of the quiet sky,

Naught now remains but Nature’s placid scene,

Heaven’s deathless blue and earth’s eternal green.”

Winthrop Mackworth Præd.

To Themistocles in Magnesia, greetings from Zopyrus at Gela in Sicily:—

After a silence of many years I write you again of affairs of state and even of many personal things which I know will be of interest to you. I want to assure you, my friend that I have never doubted your true loyalty to Athens, and I write you freely knowing that Greece is dearer to you than Persia. Your memory is and always will be in the hearts of the majority, for who can forget the glories of Salamis and the hero to whom we owe that victory!
217

Would that you could once more behold Athens—our Athens—and yet not as she was in the years that you, my dear friend, walked her streets, stood in her buzzing mart, or ascended her divine hill. The crystalline air, the song of the nightingale in the olive groves, the shaggy peak of Hymettus, the blue of the bay, and the familiar rose-tinted rock of the Acropolis—these the Persian has been unable to destroy.

Your once hated rival Aristides is dead. I know that though bitter enmity once filled your heart, you will regret to hear that he died so poor that he was buried at the public expense. After his death Cimon became undisputed leader, and greatly has Athens been benefitted by the rule of this brilliant man whom we knew well as a youth. But alas, for the brevity of popular favor! But a few years ago he was ostracized by the most talked of man in all Athens today, Pericles, son of Xanthippus. On the eve of the battle of Tanagra, Cimon left his place of banishment and fought bravely with the Athenians against the Spartans. This so pleased Pericles that he proposed a measure recalling Cimon from exile and it was passed by the assembly. Cimon has succeeded in putting down many revolts, and you know of his great victory over the Persians in Asia. From the proceeds from the spoils of this battle he had planned to build a temple to Athena, but this work is being carried on by Pericles. It is plain that Cimon, however sincerely he had the welfare of his city at heart, was too fond of personal praise and worship. He failed in his attempt to unite Athens and Sparta. Pericles stands for the independence of Athens and for pure democracy.
218

During the Thasian Revolt about ten years ago, Mimnermus distinguished himself by bravery, but he confided to us t............