they illuminated their pigeon-hole chambers, or the WEIGHT which hung from their steel-yard. The former is worked into every possible shape that can excite the imagination—too often disgust the moral sense, of a rational being—while the latter is moulded, with useless labour, into the head of an emperor, or some fantastic form, totally unconducive to and unconnected with the real object of the metal. That a lady's work-box or flower-stand should be supported by pedestals of curious or elegant workmanship, no one can object; but if we find these pedestals moulded or carved into the most disgusting and obscene figures which a depraved imagination could invent, are we not authorized to conclude that the female mind was corrupt and rotten to the very core? Those who have examined the penetralia of the MUSEO BORBONICOo-nay, those who look at the drawings made by order of the CHANOINE JORIO himself, must confess that this picture is not overcharged! The same depravity is too often seen to pervade every kind of female ornament—the necklace, the ear-rings, the bracelets, the amulets—every object, in short, on which the female eye was accustomed to repose! But however humiliating is the picture of female indelicacy (not to give it a coarser name) that of the male sex very far surpassed it, and ran into the grossest BESTIALITY. Will it be believed that a MAN, before his own death, or his FRIENDS, after that event, should have employed sculptors for months, or years, in decorating the marble sarcophagus in which the lifeless corpse was to repose, with the grossest emblems and representations of revolting obscenities and crimes! Such however is the fact-and this fact alone is damning proof enough of the state of depraved feeling in which the Roman mind was sunk at the commencement of the Christian æra ! If the forums, the temples, the thermæ, the theatres, and the amphitheatres display a portion of that PUBLIC SPIRIT which, in times of national freedom and patriotic development of the mental energies, would have been expended on great, and good, and useful purposes, the fact does not disprove, but confirms the position I have advanced, that in Pompeii, as in every other Roman prison, the heaven-born elasticity of the human mind was compressed into the narrowest boundaries; and, when it burst the iron cincture of gloomy despotism, could only display itself in little ebullitions of personal pride or local ostentation. In almost every public edifice at Pompeii, we find inscriptions, denoting that private individuals erected this or that statue, portico, or other decoration, at his own expense!* * As an instance of the insulated interests and feelings of the Roman cities, even in the Augustan age, we may refer to the fact recorded by Tacitus, in the 14th book of his Annals, that—“a fray took place in the Pompeian Am AWFUL BURIAL OF THE AMPHITHEATRE. 215 There are a few other subjects which are calculated to excite reflection and speculation before we leave this memorable spot. The streets of Pompeii are paved with LAVA, although the eruption of Vesuvius, in 73, is mentioned as the first. This leads to conjectures, however fruitless, on the vicissitudes which the classic soil of Italy may have undergone! Other HERCULANEA and other POMPEII may lie deeply buried beneath those which restless curiosity is now resuscitating! The THERMÆ, or PUBLIC BATHS, are objects of no mean curiosity, since the uses of all their parts are quite unequivocal. We traverse, with no small surprise, the undressing room-the cold bath-the tepidarium, or warm-air bath -the CALIDARIUM, or VAPOUR-BATH, furnished at one end with a common liquid hot-bath—at the other with a spouting hot-bath, &c. We see the place where the boilers were placed, not only for supplying hot water, but vapour, which is conveyed by pipes into the interstices of the double walls, with small sieve-like or capillary apertures, to let the vapour into the CALIDARIUM. In short, invention was tortured to construct these public baths, in which hundreds bathed in common, with every thing that could minister to luxury. Considering the sultry atmosphere which the Pompeians breathed, we are not disposed to indulge in rigid censure on the enervating influence of these public Thermæ. Nor ought we to blame a people, who were shut out from all common or political feeling with the rest of the world, for indulging in the fictitious joys and sorrows of the stage. But when we proceed from the THEATRE to the AMPHITHEATRE, and survey the now empty benches where TWENTY THOUSAND spectators eyed, with rapturous delight, the mortal conflicts of men and animals on the ensanguined arena, a sense of horror at the cruelty, supersedes a sense of disgust at the licentiousness of a people, who united the wantonness of the goat with the ferocity of the hyena! While pacing the lofty gallery that runs round this spacious amphitheatre, commanding an enchanting prospect of the Apennines and the ocean—of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, we are reminded by history that on this very spot, and on the 24th of August, 79, TWENTY THOUSAND Pompeians raised the shout of pleasure at the sight of blood and butchery on the arena beneath them-but, on casting their eyes towards the smoking mountain, had their joy suddenly turned into unutterable terror, when they beheld, rising from its crater, "that terrific column of boiling water and volcanic substances which suddenly transformed this majestic amphitheatre, and the whole city, into a barren hill of pumice-stones and ashes"! The horror and dismay with which phitheatre, A.D. LIX. between the colonies of Nuceria and Pompeii, at a gladiatorial exhibition given by Livinejus Regulus, in consequence of which, these exhibitions were prohibited at Pompeii for ten years." this countless multitude rushed towards the SARNO and the SEA, to escape the showers of fire and the torrents of mud that issued from Vesuvius, must have been a scene unparalleled in the annals of human disasters! If an over-ruling providence ever deigns to manifest its displeasure through the instrumentality of such destructive operations of natural causes, this catastrophe may have been a judgment on manifold transgressions against the laws of Nature and of Nature's God! But, although it would be presumptuous in man to pronounce on such awful events, it might be wisdom in him to look upon them as indications of offended justice, in times when vice prevails. As only five human skeletons have been found in the amphitheatre, and not more than two or three hundred in the other excavated portions of the city, it has been concluded that the greater number of the people escaped this dreadful visitation. But this conclusion is probably very erroneous. Not an eighth part of Pompeii is yet disinterred-and that eighth is the portion most likely to be first deserted, as being nearest the source of danger. There may be places towards the marine aspect of the city where great numbers have perished. But granting that only 2000 were buried in the ruins of Pompeii, how many thousands must have perished in the Sarno-in the space between the city and sea-and in the sea itself, since drowning was an easier death than burning! When Pliny approached the place, he saw innumerable boats putting off from the shore; and, as he himself fell a victim to the showers of burning ashes, it is probable that a very considerable proportion of the wretched inhabitants were destroyed. It is evident, too, that numerous excavations were made by the ancients themselves, and immense quantities of valuables dug out of the ruins. The bones of their countrymen would be collected and burnt on such occasions. Some articles found in Pompeii, and now preserved in the Museum, excite much conjecture. We see helmets and armour under which no human being could now fight, on account of their weight. But these were probably used in gymnastic exercises, or on the stage. The skeletons of the Pompeians indicate any thing rather than gigantic stature or strength. The glazed windows have put an end to all doubt about the use of glass, among the ancients, for the transmission of light-and as for bottles, of all shapes and sizes, the Museum at Naples would furnish half a dozen glass-shops in the Strand. The art of rendering bronze as elastic as steel appears to be lost. We there see the handles of utensils made of this curious manufacture. The portable cooking apparatuses might be made subjects of patents in London-and the moulds for pastry, &c. are as imaginative as all the other utensils among these fanciful people. The brass cocks, and leaden tubes for conveying water into the houses, are precisely like those now in use in England, and ought to make the modern Romans blush for their uncleanliness! But the surgical instruments are probably the greatest curiosities of all. The doctors must POMPEIAN IMPRESSIONS. 217 have been in famous demand, though not in very high rank among the ancient Romans! There were more medicines and more instruments in use at Pompeii than in Paris or London-and some of the latter quite equal to the rarest inventions of modern times. For example, the DILATOR OF SPECULUM, for which Mr. Weiss, of the Strand, obtained so much repute a few years ago, has its exact prototype in the Bourbon Museum, at Naples. The coincidence in such an ingenious contrivance would be absolutely miraculous; but, unfortunately, there is a key to the similitude which destroys the charm of astonishment. A crafty Frenchman imitated from memory (and with some awkward deviations) the Pompeian speculum, and passed it off as his own. WEISS improved upon the Frenchman, and hit upon the exact construction of the original! Many modern discoveries may probably have originated in the same way! I could not tear myself from POMPEII till the sun was setting in the Mediterranean wave; and the excitement produced by such a scene nearly cost me a fever. I had examined the MUSEO BORBONICO twice previously, and once subsequently to an examination of the city itself. Perhaps this is as good a plan as any. Of all the impressions which my mind received between the Alps and Calabria, those of POMPEII and the MUSEUM are still the most vivid on the tablet of memory. As this was the farthest point to which time permitted me to go, so did it form the climax in point of interest. If the emotions had been less tumultuous, and the excitement less feverish, I should have been able to portray them more faithfully. Never did I feel more poignantly the want of language to represent sensations-the inadequacy of words to typify ideas, than on this occasion! Were it not for the hiatus which such an omission would produce in this hurried itinerary, I should be inclined to bury these reflexions on Pompeii in oblivion-a fate which will soon overtake them, however, without any interference on the part of their author! RETROGRESSION. The middle of November was at hand, before I could permit myself to reflect that the Alps were to be recrossed, an operation that might not be very pleasant in the month of December. It was necessary at last to bid adieu to the luxury of an English carriage, with courier and servants, and to travel in good earnest by night or by day, in whatever vehicle promised the most speed, or rather the least delay. I started from the post-office of Naples, at eleven o'clock at night, in the mail coach, which was a small cabriolet drawn by three horses, and capable of carrying one passenger-viz. myself. I was ordered to be at the office precisely at eight o'clock, and had only three hours to wait! It is fortunate F f for passengers by this royal conveyance, that there is a theatre, of some twelve feet square, directly opposite the door of the bureau, and which seems designed for the purpose of amusing the dull hours of delay in this place. The courier who was to conduct the mail to Terracina handed me into the theatre, and assured me he would call me in good time; but, in fact, the play was over before the horses were harnessed. The night was tempestuous, with lightning, rain, and thunder. The wretched appearance of the dark towns and villages through which we passed, while crossing the Campagna Felice in a storm, is indescribable. The rain beat into the cabriolet, and this first specimen of Italian travelling by mail was anything but encouraging; and here I experienced a cold fit of ague, with all the horrible and depressing feelings of that FOUL FIEND. The cheering sun arose as we approached Mount Massicus-and some good coffee at St. Agatha revived the chilled and shivering frame. The day was beautiful, as is usual after a thunderstorm, and again we crossed the LIRIS, the marshes of Marius, and the ruins of Minturnæ ;-again we passed the brigand towns of ITRI and FONDI, shuddering at the misery of the inhabitants, and admiring the beauties of Nature around them. We arrived at TERRACINA about three o'clock, or sixteen hours after quitting Naples. Much as I despised the little Neapolitan mail, it was, with one exception to be soon mentioned, the pleasantest vehicle which I sat in between Naples and Dover. It was open, like an English cabriolet, but on four wheels; and the young courier was all mirth, good humour, and kindness. He held the curtain himself, to defend me from the storm in the night—and he was unceasing in his efforts to amuse me with descriptions and anecdotes of the places through which we passed in the day. He was a complete contrast to the gruff, surly, and ill-tempered gourier belonging to His Holiness the Pope, whom we had the misery of travelling with from Terracina to Rome. At Terracina I had time to dine, and make the acquaintance of two of my travelling companions to the Eternal City. These were, a German gentleman with his English wife-both invalids, who had come from London to GENOA in pursuit of health-and were tempted by the steamer to voyage onwards to NAPLES in search of pleasure. In both these objects they were grievously disappointed; and their short tale may be of service to others. In the first place, the steamer was full of vermin and filth; in the second place, on arriving at Naples, the vessel was put into quarantine, (because letters announced that the small-pox was at Genoa !) and the whole of the passen→ gers, men, women, and childen, were incarcerated pell mell in a loathsome LAZARETTO near Portici, there to languish and starve for three weeks, paying treble for any kind of refreshment that was permitted to enter their dungeon —and, at last, charged enormously for their lodgings in this detestable prison! The lady was still labouring under the effects of this diabolical qua |