ii. p.
9.]

Philosophy is, then, the world-enduring monument of the greatness and
the glory of Athens. Whilst Greece will be forever memorable as "the
country of wisdom and of wise men," Athens will always be pre-eminently
memorable as the University of Greece. This was the home of Socrates,
and Plato, and Aristotle--the three imperial names which, for twenty
centuries, reigned supreme in the world of philosophic thought. Here
schools of philosophy were founded to which students were attracted from
every part of the civilized world, and by which an impulse and a
direction was given to human thought in every land and in every age.
Standing on the Acropolis at Athens, and looking over the city and the
open country, the Apostle would see these _places_ which are inseparably
associated with the names of the men who have always been recognized as
the great teachers of the pagan world, and who have also exerted a
powerful influence upon Christian minds of every age. "In opposite
directions he would see the suburbs where Plato and Aristotle, the two
pupils of Socrates, held their illustrious schools. The streamless bed
of the Ilissus passes between the Acropolis and Hymettus in a
south-westerly direction, until it vanishes in the low ground which
separates the city from the Piraeus." Looking towards the upper part of
this channel, Paul would see gardens of plane-trees and thickets of
angus-castus, "with other torrent-loving shrubs of Greece." Near the
base of Lycabettus was a sacred inclosure which Pericles had ornamented
with fountains. Here stood a statue of Apollo Lycius, which gave the
name to the _Lyceum_. Here, among the plane-trees, Aristotle _walked_,
and, as he walked, taught his disciples. Hence the name Peripatetics
(the Walkers), which has always designated the disciples of the
Stagirite philosopher.

On the opposite side of the city, the most beautiful of the Athenian
suburbs, we have the scene of Plato's teaching. Beyond the outer
Ceramicus, which was crowded with the sepulchres of those Athenians who
had fallen in battle, and were buried at the public expense, the eye of
Paul would rest on the favored stream of the Cephisus, flowing towards
the west. On the banks of this stream the _Academy_ was situated. A
wall, built at great expense by Hipparchus, surrounded it, and Cimon
planted long avenues of trees and erected fountains. Beneath the
plane-trees which shaded the numerous walks there assembled the
master