STAMBOUL'S LITERARY SECRETS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 126, 29 May 1915, Page 11

STAMBOUL'S LITERARY SECRETS.

i Frederic Harrison, the veteran writer and philosopher, believes that when Constantinople falls into the hands of tho Allies treasures of th© past will be brought to light whose very existence is at present unknown. Archaeologists, therefore, are watching the steady advance of the fleet up the Dardanelles with not lese interest than military experts. Th© treasure* which' Mr. Harrison and others believe to be stored away in Constantinople were seized by the Turks when they captured the city from tho Greeks under Constantino XL on 29th May, 1453. At that time Constantinople was th© very centre of the cultivation of the world. It is true that to a- certain extent scholarship had decayed, but there were plenty of Greeks who read the old language and kept aliv© traditions of learning that even survived the fall of the city, and later blossomed forth in the Italian Renaissance. In 1907, Professor Heiberg, of Copenhagen, came across a manuscript written by Archimedes in A.D. 900. H© was permitted to copy this by the Turks, but they would not let him take away the manuscript. It is hoped that when Constantinople falls into th© hands of the* Allies th© lyrics of Sappho, the plays of Menandor, and the lost books ofLivy and Aristotle will be found — that is, of , course, unless th© Turks before they go destroy whatever they are unable to carry away.