andalous proceeding upon taking up one of
the great white marble blocks which form the floor or stylobate of the
temple. They wanted to see what was underneath, and Dodwell, who was
there, saw the foundation--a substructure of Peiraeic sandstone. But when
they had finished their inspection they actually left the block they had
removed, without putting it back into its place. So this beautiful
pavement, made merely of closely-fitting blocks, without any artificial
or foreign joinings, was ripped up, and the work of its destruction
began. I am happy to add that, tho a considerable rent was then made,
most of it is still intact, and the traveler of to-day may still walk on
the very stones which bore the tread of every great Athenian.

The question has often been discust, whether Lord Elgin was justified in
carrying off this pediment, the metopes, and the friezes, from their
place; and the Greeks of to-day hope confidently that the day will come
when England will restore these treasures to their place. This is, of
course, absurd, and it may fairly be argued that people who would
bombard their antiquities in a revolution are not fit custodians of them
in the intervals of domestic quiet. This was my reply to an old Greek
gentleman who assailed the memory of Lord Elgin with reproaches.

I confess I approved of this removal until I came home from Greece, and
went again to see the spoil in its place in our great museum. Tho there
treated with every care--tho shown to the best advantage, and explained
by excellent models of the whole building, and clear descriptions of
their place on it--notwithstanding all this, it was plain that these
wonderful fragments lost so terribly by being separated from their
place--they looked so unmeaning in an English room, away from their
temple, their country and their lovely atmosphere--that one earnestly
wished they had never been taken from their place, even at the risk of
being made a target by the Greeks or the Turks. I am convinced, too,
that the few who would have seen them, as intelligent travelers, on
their famous rock, would have gained in quality the advantage now
diffused among many, but weakened and almost destroyed by the wrench in
associations, when the ornament is severed from its surface, and the
decoration of a temple exhibited apart from the temple itself. We may
admit, then, that it had been better if Lord Elgin had never taken away
these marbles. Nevertheless, it would be absur