beauty and abundance, covered with villas and enlivened by population*, when the eruption burst forth with more suddenness and more fury than any similar catastrophe on record. The darkness, the flames, the agitation, the uproar, that accompanied this explosion, and extended its devastation and its terror so widely, might naturally excite among many of the degenerate and epicurean Romans that frequented the Campanian coasts, the opinion that the period of universal destruction was arrived, and that the atoms which formed the world were about to dissolve their fortuitous combination, and plunge the universe once more into chaos. The last eruption took place in 1794; the ashes, cinders, and even water, thrown from the mountain did considerable damage to the towns of Somma, Ottaiano, and all the circumjacent region; but the principal mischief was, as usual, occasioned by the lava, rivers of which, as I have already related, poured down the southern side of the mountain. These and several other torrents of similar matter, but earlier date, are seen from the summit, and may be traced from their source through the whole of their progress, which generally terminates in the sea. They are narrow at first, but expand as they advance, and appear * Hic est pampinus viridis modo Vesvius umbris: Mart. Lib. IV. like so many tracks of rich black mould just turned up by the plough. When their destructive effects are considered, one is surprized to see villas placed in their windings, vineyards waving over their borders, and towns rising in the very middle of their channels. In truth, ravaged, and tortured as the vicinity of Vesuvius has been for so many ages, it must appear singular, that it has not been abandoned by its inhabitants, and consigned to the genius of fire and desolation as his own peculiar territory. But such is the richness of the soil, and so slight the damages occasioned by the volcano, when compared to the produce of the lands fertilized by its ashes; so delightful is the situation, and of its numerous inhabitants so small the number that suffer by its agitations, that the evil when divested of its terrific appearances seems an ordinary calamity, not exceeding in mischief the accidents of fire and inundation so common in northern countries. The alarm is indeed great on the approach of an eruption, because it is usually preceded by earthquakes; but when once the fermenting matter finds vent, the general danger is considered as over, and the progress of the phenomena becomes an object of mere curiosity to all, excepting to the cultivators of the lands which the lava actually rolls over, or seems likely to ravage in its progress. We descended the cone or upper part of the mountain with great ease and rapidity, as the ashes yielding to the tread prevented slipping, and enabled us to hasten our pace without danger. From the Atrio dei Cavalli we proceeded towards a bed of lava ejected in the last eruption, and found its appearance very different from that which we had observed from the summit. From thence it resembled long stripes of new ploughed land; here it was like the surface of a dark muddy stream con vulsed by a hurricane, and frozen in a state of agitation; presenting rough broken masses rolling over each other, with a huge fragment rising above the rest here and there, like a vast wave distorted by the tempest and congealed in its fall. The exterior parts of this once liquid torrent of fire are cold, but the sand produced by the friction and crumbling of the interior parts, although it is now eight years since the eruption, is still too hot to hold in the hand, as is indeed the earth itself under, or in immediate contact with these once glowing masses. We continued our descent, and again reached Portici about eleven o'clock *. * Notwithstanding the encomium of Martial, the summit of Vesuvius is represented by Strabo, that is sometime before the eruption of 79, as flat and totally barren. It is reported that in the intervals of some of the eruptions its summit, and even the hollow of the crater, was covered with verdure and forest trees, as Astroni, a long extinguished volcano, is at present. The number of eruptions, including that of 1794, is said to be about thirty-one; it is not probable that in all these eruptions more than fifteen thousand persons perished, while in one eruption of Etna three times that number were buried under the ruins of one town only, Catanea. CHAP. XXV. HERCULANEUM--PAPYRI--TORRE DEL GRECO-POMPEII; ITS THEATRES, TEMPLE, PORTICOS, AND VILLA, GENERAL APPEARANCE AND EFFECT-----EXCURSION TO THE AQUEDUCT, AND PALACE OF CASERTA. PORTICI is a small town about six miles from Naples, on the sea shore, and at the foot of Vesuvius; its principal ornament is a royal palace. Under this town and palace lies buried, at the depth of seventy feet under accumulated beds of lava, the city of Herculaneum, the first victim of the fires of Vesuvius. Its name and catastrophe were too well recorded to be forgotten; but its site, though marked out by the ancients with tolerable precision, was a subject of debate among the learned, till an accident determined the controversy. A peasant sinking a well in his garden found several fragments of marble. The Prince D'Elbeuf, being informed of the circumstance, purchased the spot, and continuing the excavations discovered various statues, pillars, and even a whole temple of the finest marble, adorned with statues. The Neapolitan government then interposed, and suspended all further excavations for the space of twenty years, at which time, instead of satisfying the public curiosity and doing itself immortal honor by purchasing the village and buildings above, and laying open the whole city below it, bought the ground, but with characteristic stupidity resolved to cover it with a palace. The excavations were indeed continued occasionally but negligently, and rather for the purpose of profit than liberal curiosity. However, a basilica, two temples, and a theatre were successively discovered and stripped of their numerous pillars and statues. Streets were observed, paved, and flagged on the sides, and private houses, and even monuments explored. A prodigious number of statues of bronze of different sizes, pillars of marble and alabaster, and paintings and mosaics, many entire and in high preservation, others fractured and damaged, have been drawn from the edifices of this subterraneous city, and give a high idea of its opulence: to these we may add every species of ornaments used in dress, of weapons, and armor, of kitchen utensils and domestic furniture, of agricultural and chirurgical instruments. More treasures, without doubt, might be extracted from this long forgotten and neglected mine of antiquity, but the almost inconceivable indifference of the Spanish court, and the indolence with which the excavations have been carried on, as well as the manner, which is more influenced by a regard for the safety of the heavy useless palace above, than by any considerations of curiosity and interest in the city below, have hitherto in spite of public eagerness checked or rather suspended the undertaking. At present, the theatre is the only part open to inspection; the descent is by a long flight of stairs wide and convenient, but the darkness below is too deep to be dispelled by the feeble glare of a few torches; and some of the seats for |