I. To vindicate the memory of the Athenian people, without disguising the errors of Athenian institutions;-and, in narrating alike the triumphs and the reverses-the grandeur and the decay-of the most eminent of ancient states, to record the causes of her imperishable influence on mankind, not alone in political change or the fortunes of fluctuating war, but in the arts, the letters, and the social habits, which are equal elements in the history of a people;-this is the object that I set before me;-not unreconciled to the toil of years, if, serving to divest of some party errors, and to diffuse through a wider circle such knowledge as is yet bequeathed to us of a time and land, fertile in august examples and in solemn warnings-consecrated by undying names and memorable deeds.