OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

139

Chrysoloras admired the venerable beauties ofthe mother, be was not forgetful of his nativecountry, her fairest daughter, her imperial co-lony ; and the Byzantine patriot expatiates withzeal and truth on the eternal advantages of na-ture, and the more trausitory glories of art anddominion, which adorned, or had adorned, thecity of Constantine. Yet the perfection of thecopy still redounds (as he modestly observes) tothe honour of the original, and parents are de-lighted to be renewed, and even excelled, by thesuperior merit of their children. “ Constantin-“ ople,” says the orator, “ is situate on a com-“ manding point, between Europe and Asia , be-“ tween the Archipelago and the Euxine . By“ her interposition, the two seas, and the two“ continents, are united for the common benefit“ of nations; and the gates of '^mmerce may“ be shut or opened at her command. The har-“ bour, encompassed on all sides by the sea and“ the continent, is the most secure and capa-“ cious in the world. The walls and gates of“ Constantinople may be compared with those“ of Babylon: the towers are many; each tower“ is a solid and lofty structure; and the second“ wall, the outer fortification, would be suffi-“ cient for the defence and dignity of an ordinary“ capital. A broad and rapid stream may be“ introduced into the ditches; and the artificial“ island may be encompassed like Athens 1 " by

b Somebody observed, that the city of Athens might be circumna-vigated (tic eettev Tr.v voXlv T»v AOsvatwv iuvaadai lent vagnvXity xat mf l7TXliv).But what may be true in a rhetorical sense of Constantinople , cannotbe applied to the situation of Athens, five miles from the sea, and notintersected or surrounded by any navigable streams.

CHAP

LXVI1