MARIE PAPE-CARPANTIER.

It happened to the present writer some seven or eight years ago to be in Athens, and an incident that occurred there may very aptly open this memoir.

The season was May, and Athens, so beautiful at all times, seemed then almost unreal in its wonderful loveliness, recalling the words of the poet

"Through snow-like columns flowed

The warm winds and the azure æther shone,
And the blue sea and shadowy hills were seen."

Any description, however, would be out of place here-of the Parthenon, matchless relic of a matchless age-of the Dionysiac Theatre, where the plays of Æschylus, Sophocles, and

Euripides were performed in the bright spring days; of the Ceramicus or burial-ground, where Pericles pronounced that grand funeral oration upon departed heroes, recalled by Thucydides and Plato; of the village of Colonus, where Edipus, before his disappearance, heard that solemn, mysterious. summons, "Hark, Edipus, King Edipus, come hither, thou art wanted. Wanted for what? Was it for death? was it for judgment? was it for some wilderness of pariah eternities? No man ever knew. Chasms opened in the earth; dark gigantic arms stretched out to receive the king; clouds and vapours settled over the penal abyss." These things, to be realized, must be seen and felt, and they are only alluded to now because in the midst of such impressions a pair of enthusiastic English travellers were recalled from the fascination of mythic and

1 De Quincey: The Theban Sphinx.

"1

classic times to the world of every day and the work of one good and heroic woman in it. Some friends invited us to visit the Arsakion, which is quite the noteworthiest educational institution of modern Athens, being a girls' school combining elementary and advanced. classes for all ages and ranks. In fact, the Arsakion has much in common with the twin schools at Camden Town, under the admirable and well-known direction of the celebrated Miss Buss. The Arsakion has been fully described elsewhere, and only one feature of it shall be mentioned here, namely, a Kindergarten class for young children of the upper ranks, an inspection of which delighted us beyond measure. The children, little toddling things in that interesting but troublesome stage between the nursery and the schoolroom, were charming to look at, and when

See "Holiday Letters," by M. Betham-Edwards. Isbister and Co. 1872.

we happened to enter were just enjoying a picture lesson. The teacher, a young French lady, stood on an estrade, holding before them a large picture painted in bright colours, and having a Scripture subject. With the aid of this she delivered a simple yet effective lesson, her pupils listening attentively and without effort from first to last.

"That young lady," said the head teacher, acting as our cicerone, “has recently come from Paris, and is a pupil of the famous Madame Pape-Carpantier."

We already knew of Madame Pape's training school for elementary teachers; we had, indeed, been privileged with an interview years before, but this experience afforded a new and convincing proof of the good work she was doing in education.

Think of her young teachers being invited. from far-off Paris to teach little Greek boys and girls "object-lessons" in the capital of