The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 | Page 6

played in those years was but the logical consequence

of his previous life. The struggle was for the rights of Hungary, in all
circumstances and against all foes. For these he fought along with the
Hungarian aristocracy, as long as they had the courage to resist Austria;
and when they wavered, he went on without them, appealing to the
comitats and to the smaller landed proprietors in the absence of the
greater, and to the squires instead of the nobles.
[Illustration: THE WIFE AND CHILDREN OF KOSSUTH--FROM A
RECENT DAGUERREOTYPE.]
The result thus far we all know. The final result perhaps we in America
are to decide.

THE ANCIENT MONUMENTS OF GREECE.
[Illustration: THE ACROPOLIS.]
Every one can understand the regret with which we behold the remains
of ancient grandeur, and the capitals of buried empires. This feeling, so
profound in Jerusalem and Rome, is even more so in Athens,--
"the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence, native to famous
wits, Or hospitable--"
a city never so large as New-York, but whose inhabitants produced
within the short space of two centuries, reckoning from the battle of
Marathon, as Landor says, a larger number of exquisite models, in war,
philosophy, patriotism, oratory and poetry--in the semi-mechanical arts
which accompany or follow them, sculpture and painting--and in the
first of the mechanical, architecture, than the remainder of Europe in
six thousand years.
The monuments of antiquity which still exist in Athens have been
described by Chandler, Clarke, Gell, Stuart, Dodwell, Leake, and other
travellers, the most recent and competent of whom perhaps is Mr.
Henry Cook, of London, author of Illustrations of a Tour in the Ionian
Islands, Greece, and Constantinople, who has just made, or rather is

now making for the Art-Journal a series of drawings of those which are
most important, representing them in their present condition. These
drawings by Mr. Cook, so far as they have appeared, we reproduce in
the International, making liberal use at the same time of his
descriptions.
Until the sacrilegious hand of the late Lord Elgin despoiled Athens of
"what Goth, and Turk, and Time had spared," the world could still see
enough to render possible a just impression of her old and chaste
magnificence. It is painful to reflect within how comparatively short a
period the chief injuries have been inflicted on such buildings as the
Parthenon, and the temple of Jupiter Olympus, and to remember how
recent is the greater part of the rubbish by which these edifices have
been choked up, mutilated, and concealed. Probably until within a very
few centuries, time had been, simply and alone, the "beautifier of the
dead," "adorner of the ruin," and, but for the vandalism of a few
barbarians, we might have gazed on the remains of former greatness
without an emotion except of admiration for the genius by which they
were created. The salient feature (probably the only one) in the present
rule at Athens is one which affords the highest satisfaction to those
interested in this subject. Slowly, indeed, and with an absence of all
energy, is going on the restoration of some, the disinterment of others,
and the conservation of all the existing monuments; and time will
probably ere long give us back, so far as is possible, all that the
vandalism or recklessness of modern ages has obscured or destroyed.
On the Acropolis the results of these efforts at restoration are chiefly
visible; day by day the debris of ruined fortifications, of Turkish
batteries, mosques, and magazines, are disappearing; every thing which
is not Pentelic marble finds its way over the steep sides of the fortress,
and in due time nothing will be left but the scattered fragments which
really belonged to the ancient temples. "The above sketch," says Mr.
Cook, "represents faithfully the present condition of this most sublime
creation. The details of the partial destruction of this old
fortress--founded 1556 years before the advent of the Saviour--under
the fire of the Venetians, commanded by Morosini, are so well known,
that I have thought it unnecessary to repeat them; but it is impossible to
recall them without a shudder, as the reflection is forced on one, of

what must have been their fate whose wickedness caused an explosion
which could scatter, as a horse's hoof may the sands of the sea-shore,
the giant masses which for ever bear witness to the power of that
mighty agent we have evoked from the earth for our mutual
destruction." At the west end of the Acropolis, by which alone it was
accessible, stood the Propylæa, its gate as well as its defence. Through
this gate the periodical processions of the Panathenaic jubilee were
wont to move, and the marks of chariot wheels are still visible on the
stone floor of its entrance. It