GENNADEION AND ACROPOLIS

The Gennadeion looks down on the Acropolis. The child towers above the parent. The new library for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens is practically completed. Designed by an American architect, the marble edifice is a true descendant of that classical school in the midst of whose ruins it stands like a spectre from the past.

But the building is more to be noted as a guiding star for modern Greece. That country sank to the depths of degeneration under Turkish rule. Curiously, it is Turkish action in purposely strangling the purposely of Constantinople for the benefit of Angora that is turning Mediterranean commerce to Grecian cities, particularly to Athens and its point of Piraeus. Greece has the material necessities for an era of prosperity, but she is still in the clutches of technical methods which are anachronisms from the days before the Industrial Revolution. In the construction of this new library America has furnished the surrounding country with an example of modern methods. The Greek government has observed the example with interest and ordered it followed in the great housing works which must soon be undertaken to provide for he large surplus of population. Then, too, America has embodied the brilliant cultural ideals of the Golden Age of Greece in this new building on Grecian soil. The modern world has combinea its contribution of efficiency with ancient architectural greatness to provide a beacon for a rejuvenated Greece.