Gell, William: The itinerary of Greece: With a commentary on Pausanias and Strabo and an account of the monuments of antiquity at present existing in that country (London, 1810)

11

PREFACE.

too, generally marked with such precision that the spot
cannot easily be mistaken. Although every nation
changes its character with its government, yet notwith-
standing the lapse of twenty centuries, and so many
revolutions, it is very gratifying to observe, that in Greece
the same physical causes which produced the original dis-
tinction between the inhabitants of neighbouring districts,
still operate with such force, that no other country affords
so many traces of ancient manners, or recalls so frequently
the recollection of its former inhabitants. Thus Athens
is now the most polished city of Greece; the Eleuthero
Lacones still retain their independence and aversion to
strangers; the stoutest men are yet to be found at Daulis,
the Acarnanians and Epirots are yet the most lawless;
and if Theseus cut off his hair at Delphi previous to his
journey into Molossia, three thousand years ago, a
stranger who wished to pass undiscovered as a native of
that part of the country would be necessitated to follow his
example at the present day.

There is no part of the world in which primitive manners
can be observed with so little personal danger; there is

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