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can delight the senses, exercise the intellect, inspire the fancy, renew the health, and prolong existence. Whether we pace the terraced roof of the beautiful VITTORIA-saunter through the statued and scented groves of the Chiaja-wind round the romantic promontory of Posilipo-sigh over Virgil's tomb-ascend the steeps of St. Elmo, Camaldoli, or Misenum, there to gaze on the sublimest scenes of varied beauty, fertility, and grandeur, that ever burst on the human eye; or shudder at the desolating ravages of active or exhausted volcanos,

Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled,

The fragments of an earlier world;

Whether we endeavour to recall the glowing descriptions of poets, or labour to imprint on the mind or the memory some faint images of the gorgeous scenes that surround us, we are overwhelmed, distracted by the tumultuous tide of impressions, half of which we can neither receive, dispose of, nor retain !

"And thus an airy point he won,

Where, gleaming with the setting sun,
One burnished sheet of living gold,
The ocean lay beneath him rolled;

In all its length far winding lay,
With promontory, creek, and bay,
And islands that, empurpled bright,
Floated amid the silver light;

And mountains that, like giant's stand,

To centinel enchanted land."

Of the inhabitants of Naples, it would ill become a momentary sojourner, even to sketch the lineaments. The features of Nature, and the feats of art are open to all-and "he who runs may read." But a knowledge of character requires intimacy of acquaintance; and intimacy of acquaintance can only be formed during a protracted residence. That the monarchy of this fair region is despotic, and the government corrupt, will hardly be disputed. That, in such a country, there should be one law for the rich, and another for the poor, need not be wondered at, when we reflect on the current of justice under tribunals less arbitrary. It is more than suspected that the Neapolitan government fosters ignorance and idleness in its NOBILITY-trusting to these qualities for all others that may be subservient to its policy! As to the middle and more enlightened ranks-the clergy, the bar, the faculty of physic, and the literary of all kinds, they must be pretty much the same as their brethren in other countries. Profession and avocation produce nearly the same effects as military discipline. They drill men into a surprising uniformity of mind and manners-they go far to annihilate idiosyncrasy—to render identity not personal but generic !

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STREETS AND INHABITANTS.

205 Of the people and especially of that anomaly in civilization, the people's people, or LAZARONI-much has been said that will soon be forgotten. So great a change has taken place in the fortunes of the LAZARONI, within a few years, that Forsyth and Lady Morgan would hardly believe their own eyes-or their own handwriting, were they to revisit this splendid city. The government having comfortably, or at least securely lodged most of those in the work-house, who could not shew proof of having a lodging elsewhere, an entire revolution has been worked in the aspect of affairs, and half the drollery of Naples has been transformed into the drudgery of industry. The peripatetic poet, wit, and commentator on Tasso, has lost half his audience, on the Mole-the preaching friar is in a still worse predicament—and even PUNCHINELLO has experienced a sad defalcation in his revenue !

The heat of the climate, however, and the custom of the country still render the streets of Naples the theatre of all kinds of arts, manufactures, and traffic, as well as of idleness and amusement. Hence the graphic sketches of Forsyth and others, on this point, are likely to continue faithful representations for centuries to come.

"The crowd of London is uniform and intelligible: it is a double line in quick motion; it is the crowd of business. The crowd of Naples consists in a general tide rolling up and down, and in the middle of this tide a hundred eddies of men. Here you are swept on by the current, there you are wheeled round by the vortex. A diversity of trades dispute with you in the streets. You are stopped by a carpenter's bench, you are lost among shoe-makers' tools, you dash among the pots of a maccaroni-stall, and you escape behind a lazarone's night-basket. In this region of caricature every bargain sounds like a battle the popular exhibitions are full of the grotesque; some of their church-processions would frighten a war-horse."

The other part of the picture, as drawn by Forsyth, is now greatly curtailed of its fair proportions; but may still be recognized.

"The Mole seems on holidays an epitome of the town, and exhibits most of its humours. Here stands a methodistical friar preaching to one row of lazaroni: there, Punch, the representative of the nation, holds forth to a crowd. Yonder, another orator recounts the miracles performed by a sacred wax-work on which he rubs his agnuses and sells them, thus impregnated with grace, for a grain a piece. Beyond him are quacks in hussar uniform, exalting their drugs and brandishing their sabres, as if not content with one mode of killing. The next professore is a dog of knowledge, great in his own little circle of admirers. Opposite to him stand two jocund old men, in the centres of an oval group, singing alternately to their crazy guitars. Further on is a motley audience seated on planks, and listening to a tragicomic filosofo, who reads, sings, and gesticulates old Gothic tales of Orlando and his Paladins."

Such were thy charms—but half these charms are fled!

A contemplation of the narrow streets which intersect the Toledo in all directions, from the Chiaja to the Museum, would furnish matter for a small volume; but a great part of it would not look well in print. If it ever happen, which is far from impossible, that Naples, like Pompeii, should be surprised by an inundation of ashes from Vesuvius, her disinterred streets will supply ample materials for a secret sanctum in some future museum! It is a consolation, however, to reflect that no resurrection of this kind can ever bring to light the horribly revolting proofs of human depravity which the apartments of POMPEII have so unequivocally revealed!

So keen and sensitive a people as the Neapolitans must rapidly improve by intercourse with their northern neighbours, and not adhere, like the Chinese and Hindoos, to the same path which their forefathers trode, from time immemorial. Half a century, indeed, of peace and commerce would go far to obliterate all distinctions among the people of Europe, excepting those topographical and natural peculiarities which are unchangeable by time or circumstance. This general amalgamation, resulting from intimacy of communion, is wonderfully promoted by that unceasing propensity in human nature to imitate the good as well as the evil examples of our neighbours. Thus vice and virtue-folly and wisdom-industry and sloth, are perpetually tending to a level or equilibrium among nations, like temperature among different material substances. If the Neapolitans acquire some ideas of com> fort, utility, and cleanliness from their numerous British visitors, the latter will, no doubt, import a liberal equivalent of all the most prominent features of Italian manners, sentiments, and principles. Commerce is not confined to the exchange of wines, oils, cotton, and cutlery. It extends to much less ponderable substances to thoughts, words, actions, and even passions. The reciprocal traffic, in these commodities, between Great Britain and the Continent, has, for many years, been more active than in those multifarious articles which are entered at the Custom-house, on both sides of the Channel. In this respect, the system of FREE trade is as unshackled as its most enthusiastic advocates could desire. The results will be seen in time.

A great complaint is made against Naples on account of its deficiency, or almost total want of architectural ruins and antiquities, as compared with Rome. This complaint is just, as far as architecture is concerned; but the defect is more than atoned for by the beauties of Nature, and the unique antiquities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. If Florence has its Venus, and Rome its Apollo-Naples has its Toro, its Hercules-and, what is worth the whole four-its ARISTIDES! I am doubtful whether I should not prefer the Museo Borbonico to the Vatican, if the gift of one of these invaluable treasures were offered to me.

SIROCCO-TRAMONTANE-Herculaneum.

POMPEII.

207

If a stranger were to arrive at Naples, by sea, and that for the first time, in the month of November or December, he would be apt to form a very erroneous idea of the climate, according to the point from which the wind blew. If it came from the SOUTH, he would be inclined to think that there was little difference between Naples and the black-hole of Calcutta. If from the NORTH-EAST, he would begin to doubt whether he had not sailed in a wrong direction, and made the Gulph of Finland, instead of the Gulph of Salerno. If a gentle North-West zephyr skimmed the surface of the deep and wooed the shores of Baiæ, he might be tempted to think that he had got into the gardens of the Hesperides, or the isles of Atlantis, so green is vegetation, so balmy the air, so mellow the sun-beams, and so azure the skies!

YESTERDAY, the SIROCCO-" Auster's sultry breath"-steamed over Naples, depressing the animal spirits and the vital energies to the lowest ebb. It is impossible to convey in words any adequate idea of the sedative effects of this wind on mind as well as body. I tried to respire in freedom on the roof of the Vittoria on the Chiaja-the Mole-the Chiatomone; but found no relief from the nervous depression and muscular languor induced by this mephitic composition of rarified air and aqueous exhalation. I hired a calessino and drove round the promontory of Posilipo-and afterwards ascending to the airy castle of ST. ELMO, wandered through the beautiful church of Sr. MarTINO-but all in vain! From lassitude of body and dejection of mind there was no escape, while this accursed blast prevailed.

TO-DAY, started at sunrise, in an open barouche, for POMPEII, under the chilling influence of a TRAMONTANE, or North-easter, that came down in piercing gusts from the Apennines, more cutting and keen than the winds that sweep along the Winter snows of Siberia. In passing through PORTICI, I could scarcely help envying as well as pitying the LAZARONI, stowed in rows, like sailors' hammocks, along the sunny sides of the streets, sheltered from the blast, and basking in the rays of a glorious luminary.

As the carriage rolled rapidly over the volcanic grave of HERCULaneum, hollow murmurs echoed from the chambers of the dead beneath; while fancy assimilated these melancholy sounds with the dying groans of its entombed inhabitants, when the terrific surge of boiling lava curled for an instant against the ramparts, and then swept, with relentless fury, over the devoted city! No sight-no idea is so agonizing to the human mind, as that of protracted torture and lingering death. Fortunately for the Herculaneans, their sufferings were momentary, and instant destruction released them from the horrors of the scene! The nature of the fatal torrent which inhumed Herculaneum, and filled every crevice with solid stone, will probably prevent its ever being excavated.

From Portici to Pompeii, the country is any thing but lovely, as some travellers have represented it. It is a dreary waste of black scoriæ, sprinkled with habitations and patches of cultivation. It is impossible to drive over this scene of volcanic desolation, without casting an eye of distrust, if not of fear, towards that giant of mischief who rises on our left,—from whose mouth, the curling and carbonaceous breath ascends to mingle with the blue ether, in long wreaths of smoaky clouds-and from whose troubled paunch so many rivers of liquid fire and showers of burning ashes have been vomited forth over the plains which we are now crossing!

It is not the least remarkable trait in the human mind, and one which distinguishes man from other animals more than any characteristic pointed out by philosophers-I mean that prying curiosity, which is as intense in respect to the past as to the future. We approach POMPEII, a city which would appear to have been preserved as a most piquant condiment for antiquarian stomachs, with as much anxiety to know how the inhabitants lived eighteen hundred years ago, as the blushing maiden feels, on consulting the oracle as to her future matrimonial destinies. We advanced towards the Herculanean gate, through a double line of tombstones, with breathless expectation and palpitating hearts. We know that men and women have died in all ages, and that grateful friends or joyful heirs have erected monuments to their memory. But modern feeling-perhaps prejudice-is hardly prepared for that association of ideas which converted the marble coverings of the dead into cool and pleasant couches for social conversation, if not hilarity, among the living. Such was evidently the secondary, perhaps the principal object and use of the tombs of Pompeii.

Among these mansions of the dead, and nearly opposite to each other, stand two of the amplest abodes of the living, which are seen either within or without the walls. One was a private, the other a public edifice—one, the VILLA of some rich citizen-an alderman-Sir William Diomede, of Lombard Street, or Threadneedle Street, Pompeii-the other, a hotel of ample dimensions which was, no doubt, a fashionable rendezvous for the Cockney Pompeians in the first century of the Christian æra. The accommodations which it afforded for man and beast-or rather for beastly man, are but too unequivocal; -and indeed the interior of this inn, as well as the apartments of private houses throughout this city, perpetually recals to memory the terrible but not undeserved fate of SODOM and GOMORRHA!* Only five human skeletons,

* The learned ABBATE JORIO, who has taken such pains to delineate Pompeii, very naturally slurs over the disgusting scenes of depravity which that city commemorates, but was not able entirely to conceal thèm. Speaking of this hotel, he observes-" On voyait dans l'interieur pleusieurs boutiques pour des marchands, soit des comestibles, soit d'objets assez communs, ainsi que l'extreme grossièreté de l'enduit et des peintures, &c.”—PLAN DE POMPEII.

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