NOTHING NEW UNder the sun.

211 be so universal. This surprise is not solely occasioned by the almost miraculous preservation of these objects during so many centuries. There is another and less explicable, or at least less rational, cause for this emotion in the human mind. We are astonished (though I know not why) that the bakers of Pompeii had ovens for their bread, and could stamp their names on the loaves-that the cooks had pots, stewpans, cullenders, moulds for Christmas-pies and twelfth-cakes-that the aldermen and gourmands stowed their wines at the greatest distance from the kitchen and hot-bath-that the cafés had stoves for supplying mulled wine to their guests-that the apothecary's shop abounded in all kinds of "Doctor's stuff," a box of pills remaining to this day gilt, for the squeamish palate of some Pompeian fine lady-that the surgeon's room displayed a terrific "armamentum chirurgicum" of torturing instruments; among others, "WEISS'S DILATOR," the boast of modern invention in the Strand-that the female toilets disclosed rouge, carmine, and other cosmetics, with the hare's-foot to lay them gracefully on the pallid cheek-that the masters and mistresses had little bells to summon the slaves (for servants there were none) and that the asses, mules, and oxen had the same noisy instruments, to warn carts and wheelbarrows from entering the streets, where two vehicles could not pass at the same time-that play-bills, quack advertisements, notices of sights, shows, &c. were pasted up at the corners of streets, in monstrous bad Latin-that opera-tickets were carved in ivory, though at a lower price than 8s. 6d.—that dice were ingeniously loaded to cheat the unwary Calabrian, who came within the vortex of the Pompeian gambling-table-that horses had bits in their mouths, stirrups at their sides, and cruppers on their rumps, though the two latter are omitted in statues, for the benefit of antiquarian disquisitions—that windows were glazed when light was preferred to air, which was rarely the case—t e-that the temples of the gods were then, as now, the theatres of priestcraft, debased by juggling iniracles and popular credulity*—that tears of sorrow fell from Pompeian eyes, 2000 years ago, to be enshrined in crystal, or inurned with the ashes of the dead, as symbols and proofs of affection for departed friends-that waning

* In the Temple of Isis, we see the identical spot where the priests concealed themselves while delivering oracles that were supposed to proceed from the mouth of the Goddess! Here were found the bones of the victims sacrificed-and, in the refectory of the abstemious priests, were discovered the remains of ham, fowls, eggs, fish-and BOTTLES OF WINE! These jolly friars were carousing most merrily, and no doubt laughing heartily at the credulity of mankind, when VESUVIUS poured out a libation on their heads which put an end to their mirth, and more effectually disturbed their digestion, than did the denunciation of our amiable HENRY VIII. annihilate the appetite of Cardinal Wolsey! One priest seems to have had an eye to business in the

virgins and barren wives longed for suitors and prayed for children in days of yore as well as at the present moment, placing their hopes in amulets and charms that would now be equally ridiculous and disgusting-that the Pompeians, like the Irish, had their wakes, their howlings, and their whiskey drinkings at funerals-that the public-houses had checquers painted on their walls, as at present-that the chemist's shop had for its sign a serpent devouring a pine-apple, symbolical of prudence defeating death-that the Pompeian ladies employed male accoucheurs, who had all the implements of their art nearly similar to those of the modern men-midwives*-that the houses were numbered, and the names of the occupants painted on the walls-that, in the public tribunals, the magistrates protested to Heaven that they would decide conscientiously, while the witnesses swore most solemnly that they would speak nothing but truth-that masters were tyrants, and that servants were slaves-that the men occupied all the good seats of the theatre, leaving the gallery for the women, where officers were appointed to preserve order—that, in short, men and women had their passions and their propensities—their cares and their enjoyments, long before VESUVIUS burst into flame!

Nothing is more common, therefore, than the observation, on going round Pompeii or the Museo Borbonico, that there is " nothing new under the sun." Yet no remark can be more void of truth. Human nature being nearly the same in all ages and all climates, the more common wants and wishes of life must have early led to a discovery of the means of satisfying them—while, in so polished an æra as that of the Augustan age, there can be little wonder that luxury and refinement, under the impulse of the passions fostered by a warm climate, should have racked invention for every possible means of gratifying the senses, and exciting the imaginations of so mercurial a people—a people whose very religion was the grossest system of sensuality, and whose morality was only guided by the feeble light of reason—or moulded by the feebler laws of civilized society. And accordingly we perceive at every step in this resuscitated city, the passions, the propensities-almost the thoughts of the Pompeians, frozen, as it were by fire, and preserved for ages to be gazed at by future generations. This survey discloses too many scenes that

dreadful scramble. He helped himself to 360 pieces of silver, 42 of bronze, and 8 of gold, which he wrapped in cloth so strong as to stand the wear and tear of 17 centuries. He fled with these spoils of the temple; but was overtaken by death near the tragic theatre, where his skeleton was found, grasping the treasure, in 1812! Few, indeed, have been able to clasp the mammon of unrighteousness so long in the fond embrace of death!

* What will Sir Anthony Carlisle say to this! I tried to procure for him a pair of Pompeian FORCEPS, as a frontispiece for his next anti-obstetric pamphlet, but was unsuccessful.

ANCIENT COMPARED WITH MODERN INVENTION.

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are ill adapted to edify the eyes or the imaginations of travellers-though most of them are wisely concealed from general observation.

senses.

But to return to the subject of NOVELTY. It may be asserted, without fear, that in every invention which can conduce to the comfort, the utility, and the benefit of mankind, the moderns are as far superior to the ancients, as they are posterior in the date of their existence on this globe. It may be said, indeed, that in the refinements and luxuries of the THERMÆ, or baths, both public and private, we are surpassed by the old Romans. This is granted— because the baths were, in fact, vicious and enervating indulgences of the But let us look at the implements which conduced to the necessary or rational enjoyments of life. The oxen trode out the grain-the grain was ground between stones turned by human or animal muscles, as may be seen to this day in a great baker's shop in one of the streets. This corn-mill is little more than a large stone mortar, in which a huge pestle of the same material is turned by capstan bars, as sailors heave up an anchor in a ship! The grade of advancement in mechanical ingenuity displayed in this instance, is a fair specimen of all other arts conducive to the common wants of mankind; but when we look to those embellishments which gratify the senses, or excite the imagination, it is quite another thing. Whenever the great and noble feelings rising out of patriotism, liberty, true religion, morality, and public virtue are predominant in a people, simplicity, utility, and economy, will supersede frivolous and useless embellishments, calculated only to please the eye and stimulate the imagination. The Pompeians, in short, like most other provincials, were merged in the great prison of Roman despotism, where all exercise of public spirit, beyond the precincts of the city or little state, was converted into the study of private gratification! This is one of the glorious effects of national subjugation or privation of national freedom. Vice may spring up with liberty, but virtue cannot grow in thraldom! Modern Greece, under the withering yoke of Moslem tyranny, affords a mournful illustration. But to return to Pompeii, for a few examples elucidatory of the foregoing precepts.

Let us examine the dark and unventilated little cells, denominated chambers, in which the Pompeians lived and slept. The floors are all Mosaic-the walls all frescos exhibiting figures and tales, classical, mythological, or legendary, designed, of course, to convey pleasing images to the eye and the mind-not always, nor even generally, calculated to improve the moral or intellectual portions of our nature. Is it not evident that, if the minds of the Pompeians had been employed on nobler objects, connected with public as well as private good, this labour and this expense would have been expended in a very different manner—in the invention of machinery—the enlargement of their cells, the construction of roads, and the abridgement of human labour —or rather of human slavery? Take, for example, the little LAMP with which

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 BORBONICO-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 Ve suvius, 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 sur→ prise, 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."