TROY.

AS EXCAVATED BY DR. SCHLIEMANN.

No words can describe the interest which belongs to such a contribution to the history of the world as the discovery of Troy by Dr. Schliemann. The belief of a large part of the classic world for centuries has been embodied in a saying quite common among the Greeks: "I know of but one Ilion, and that is the Ilion as sung by Homer, which is not to be found except among the muses who dwell on Olympus." To-day is given to the world a description of the fire-scathed ruins of that city whose fate inspired the immortal first-fruits of Greek poetry, and from these remains are brought to light thousands of facts bearing upon the origin and history of the inhabitants, and illustrating their religion and language, their wealth and civilization. He has supplied the missing link, long testified by tradition as well as poetry, between the famous Greeks and their kindred in the East

The satisfaction which the discovery of Troy gives to the Greeks especially is, perhaps, nearly commensurate with the joy that a discovery would bring to the Christian which would so confirm the truth of the Bible as to forever silence its critics and the skepticism of the day. The Iliad was the Greek Bible, and every page of it was full of accounts of Troy, its people and its

heroes. It was the ultimate standard of appeal on all matters of religious doctrine and early history. It was learned by the boys at school. It was the study of men in their riper years, and even in the time of Socrates there were Athenian gentlemen who could repeat both the Iliad and Odyssey by heart. In whatever part of the ancient world a Greek settled he carried with him a love for the great poet, just as much as the Christian family takes the Bible to its new frontier home. No work of profane literature has exercised so wide and long-continued an influence.

The site of Troy is upon a plateau on the eastern shore of the Ægean Sea, about 4 miles from the coast and 41⁄2 miles southeast from the port of Sigeum. The plateau lies on an average about 80 feet above the plain, and descending very abruptly on the north side. Its northwestern corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still, which is about 705 feet in breadth and 984 in length, and from its imposing situation and natural fortifications this hill of Hissarlik seems specially suited to be the Acropolis of the town.

Like the other great Oriental capitals of the Old World, the present condition of Troy is that of a mound, such as those in the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, offering for ages the invitation to research, which has only been accepted and rewarded in our own day. The resemblance is so striking as to raise a strong presumption that, as the mounds of Nimrud and Hillah have been found to contain the palaces of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, so we may accept the ruins found in the mound of Hissarlik as those of the capital of that primeval empire in Asia Minor.

As the mounds opened by Layard and his fellow laborers contained only the "royal quarters," which towered above the rude buildings of cities, the magnitude of which is attested by abundant proofs, so it is reasonable to believe that the ruins at

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Hissarlik are those of the royal quarter, the only really perma nent part of the city built on the hill capping the lower plateau which lifted the huts of the common people above the marshes and inundations of the Scamander and the Simois. In both cases the fragile dwellings of the multitude have perished, and the pottery and other remains, which were left in the surface of the plateau of Ilium, would naturally be cleared away by the succeeding settlers. Homer's poetical exaggeration exalted the mean dwellings that clustered about the acropolis into the "wellbuilt city" with her " wide streets."

RUINS AT HISSARLIK.

The erroneous theory which assigns Troy to the heights of Bunarbashi could, in fact, never have gained ground, had its advocates employed the few hours which they spent on the heights, and in Bunarbashi itself, in making small holes, with the aid of even a single workman. No one can conceive how it is possible that the solution of the great problem, " ubi Troja fuit” -which is surely one of the greatest interest to the whole civilized world—should have been treated so superficially that, after a few hours' visit to the Plain of Troy, men have sat down at home and written voluminous works to defend a theory, the worthlessness of which they would have perceived had they but made excavations for a single hour.

The view from the hill of Hissarlik is extremely magnificent. Before it lies the glorious Plain of Troy, which is covered with grass and yellow buttercups; on the north northwest, at about an hour's distance, it is bounded by the Hellespont. The peninsula of Gallipoli here runs out to a point, upon which stands a lighthouse. To the left of it is the island of Imbros, above which rises Mount Ida of the island of Samothrace, at present covered with snow; a little more to the west, on the Macedonian peninsula, lies the celebrated Mount Athos, or Monte Santo, with its monasteries, at the northwestern side of which there are still to be seen traces of that great canal, which, according to