From Missolonghi the travellers passed over the Gulf of Corinth to Patras, then a rude, half-ruined, open town with a fortress on the top of a hill; and on the 4th of December, in the afternoon, they proceeded towards Corinth, but halted at Vostizza, the ancient AEgium, where they obtained their first view of Parnassus, on the opposite side of the gulf; rising high above the other peaks of that hilly region, and capped with snow.  It probably was during this first visit to Vostizza that the Address to Parnassus was suggested.

   Oh, thou Parnassus! whom I now survey
   Not in the frensy of a dreamer’s eye,
   Not in the fabled landscape of a lay,
   But soaring snow-clad through thy native sky,
   In the wild pomp of mountain majesty! 
   What marvel if I thus essay to sing? 
   The humblest of thy pilgrims passing by
   Would gladly woo thine echoes with his string,
Though from thy heights no more one muse will wave her wing.

   Oft have I dream’d of thee! whose glorious name
   Who knows not, knows not man’s divinest lore;
   And now I view thee, ’tis, alas! with shame
   That I in feeblest accents must adore. 
   When I recount thy worshippers of yore
   I tremble, and can only bend the knee;
   Nor raise my voice, nor vainly dare to soar,
   But gaze beneath thy cloudy canopy
In silent joy, to think at last I look on thee.

CHAPTER XVI

Vostizza—­Battle of Lepanto—­Parnassus—­Livadia—­Cave at Trophonius—­ The Fountains of Oblivion and Memory—­Chaeronea—­Thebes—­Athens

Vostizza was then a considerable town, containing between three and four thousand inhabitants, chiefly Greeks.  It stands on a rising ground on the Peloponnesian side of the Gulf of Corinth.  I say stands, but I know not if it has survived the war.  The scenery around it will always make it delightful, while the associations connected with the Achaian League, and the important events which have happened in the vicinity, will ever render the site interesting.  The battle of Lepanto, in which Cervantes lost his hand, was fought within sight of it.

What a strange thing is glory!  Three hundred years ago all Christendom rang with the battle of Lepanto, and yet it is already probable that it will only be interesting to posterity as an incident in the life of one of the private soldiers engaged in it.  This is certainly no very mournful reflection to one who is of opinion that there is no permanent fame, but that which is obtained by adding to the comforts and pleasures of mankind.  Military transactions, after their immediate effects cease to be felt, are little productive of such a result.  Not that I value military virtues the less by being of this opinion; on the contrary, I am the more convinced of their excellence.  Burke has unguardedly said, ’that vice loses half its malignity by losing