The Cruise of the Branwen

CRUISE OF THE BRANWEN This, then, is one reason why the greatest creations of art are not for one age, but for all time ; not for one man, or even for one class of men, but for humanity. This too is one reason why such buildings as the Parthenon possess something of that undying, ever-changing, elemental charm· that we perceive in hills and forests, in the rivers and the seas, in the glow of dawning or in the splendour of a setting sun ; And for this reason it is as difficult to analyse or to describe as they are. There is no other building in the world which has achieved so certain, so age-long, and so perfect a result. Of the sculptures and the statues which we saw, during our stay in Athens, in her various museums, I shall not write here. A few of the less well known of them I have reproduced among my illustrations. Of the impression left by them, by the delightful little figurines from Tanagra, by the extraordinary relics of Mycenae or of Tiryns, I cannot take the space to speak. There were some daggers from Mycenae which especially appealed to us, inlaid with various metals like the craftsmanship of old Japan. Along one handle crept some trained cats, hunt– ing geese, dating ·from 1500 yea.rs before ..Christ. In other ornaments of the same period appeared amber from the Baltic, an ostrich egg from the Nile, and many other traces of a far wider civilisa– tion than was once believed of the pre-historic Mediterranean. Mr. Evans's researches in the ancient palaces of Crete and Mr. Bosanquet's remarkable discoveries in Sparta give yet other 1 44