Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/373

the Hell On the Classical Authorities for Ancient Art. 363 the Hellenes, springing from a noble admiration of their great- ness in bygone times. This it was which made him forget fatigue in wandering through the desolate districts of Greece, and which induced him in every town to visit the curiosities of the place under the auspices of the ablest guides, and to dot everything down in order in his journal. These collected notes he afterwards published, simply putting them together, and retaining exactly the original order : the only change consisting in the omission of much that on reperusal seemed scarcely fitted for publication. This curtailing came more particularly into play in his notes on Athens and Sparta; for here the great press of matter made him afraid of saying anything trifling, or repeating anything trite. The consequence is that in these places, we have nothing but selections from his diary, which are there somewhat perplexing, as the natural thread of the Periegesis is broken The works of preceding travellers he never mentions or uses: he prefers gathering his information on places and remains from direct observation and oral communications. His vouchers are the Exegetse of Argos, Sicyon, Trcezen, Messene, Elis, Patrae, Olympia, where different classes of remains had each their own Exegetes. Those who complain that Pausanias retails the statements of these people in a dry, uninteresting, and uncritical style, would do well to consider, that it is only thus that the richness of local tradition, which still prevailed in the towns of Greece in the second century of our sera, could have been preserved to us, because a traveller of more vivacious temperament, and greater independence of judgment, would never have undertaken the task. Pausanias follows so closely in the beaten track of his guides, that in order to understand his work, you are obliged to fancy one of them by his side, pointing out and naming sights. A geographer Pausanias is not, for he has no eye for the natural aspect of Greece. Neither is he anything of an historian, for he is incapable of distinguishing myth from history, and some of his best historical sources he never touches. As a topographer how- ever he is faithful and trustworthy : his testimony is above sus- picion, and the more naively he recites what revolts our under- standing, the more may we be certain that seen and heard he has everything in Greece of which he calls himself the eye- and ear-witness. Through him alone is a scientific chorography of the Peloponnesus a possibility ; so much so, that not a corner of Vol. I. November, 1854. 25