My object in visiting Naples was to view that celebrated relic of
antiquity--the city of Pompeii, of which, about one half is now supposed to
be cleared. The workmen proceed but slowly, nevertheless something is
always being done, and some new remnant of antiquity is almost daily
brought to light; indeed, a fine statue was discovered, almost immediately
after my visit to this interesting place, but as I had quitted Naples I
could not return to see it. A stranger, is I think, apt to be much
disappointed in the size of Pompeii; it was on the whole, not more than
three miles through, and is rather to be considered the model of a town,
than one in itself. In fact, it is merely an Italian villa, or properly, a
collection of villas; and the extreme smallness of what we may justly term
the citizens' _boxes_, is another source of astonishment to those who have
been used to contemplate Roman architecture in the magnificence of
magnitude. Pompeii however, must always interest the intelligent observer,
not more on account of its awful and melancholy associations, than for the
opportunity which it affords, of remarking the extreme similarity existing
between the modes of living _then_, and _now_. "'Tis Greece, but living
Greece no more!" for in truth, we are enabled to surmise, from the relics
of this buried and disinterred town, that manners and customs, arts,
sciences, and trades, have undergone but little change in Italy since the
period of its inhumation until now. In Pompeii, the shops of the baker and
chemist are particularly worthy of attention, for you might really fancy
yourself stepped into a modern _bottéga_ in each of these; but, the museum
of Naples, wherein are deposited most of the articles dug from Pompeii,
Herculaneum, and Pæstum, is a most extraordinary lion, and one which cannot
fail to affect very deeply the spectators; there you may behold furniture,
arms, and trinkets; and the jewellery is, I can assure you, both in
materials, pattern, and workmanship, very similar indeed to that at present
in fashion, and little injured by the lapse of years, and the hot ashes
under which it was buried.[2] There too, you may behold various domestic
and culinary utensils; and there it is quite curious to observe various
jars and bottles of fruits, and pickles, evidently preserved then, the same
as they are by our notable housekeepers now; of course they are blackened
and incinerated, nevertheless, the forms of pears, apples, chestnuts,
cherries, medlars, &c. &c. are still distinguishable. Very little furniture
has been found in Pompeii; probably, because it was only occasionally
resorted to as a place of residence, like our own summer haunts of the
drinkers of sea and mineral waters; or, the inhabitants might have had
warning of the coming misfortune, and conveyed most of their effects to a
safer place; a surmise strengthened by the circumstance of so few human
skeletons having been found hitherto in the town; in the museum, however,
is a specimen of the inclined couch or sofa, used at meals, with tables,
and other articles of furniture. The method of warming apartments by flues,
and ventilating them, as now practised, was known to the inhabitants of
Pompeii. Of this town, amongst public buildings, the Forum, the Theatre,
and the Temple of Isis, have been discovered; and the latter has revealed,
in a curious manner, the iniquitous jugglery of the heathen priests. The
statue of Isis, was, it seems, oracular, and stood on a very high pedestal,
or kind of altar in the temple of the goddess. Within this pedestal a
flight of steps has been discovered, ascending to a metal tube or pipe;
which, fixed in the hollow body of the statue, and attached to its lips,
the priest of Isis was enabled by speaking through this tube, to make the
poor deluded multitude believe that their idol gave articulate answers to
their anxious queries! We have heard of similar delusions being practised
by _Christian_ priests, in days comparatively modern! But, only let us
conceive, the shame and dismay which would _now_ suffuse the countenance of
one of these worshippers of Pompeian Isis, could he but behold the
deception which had been practised upon him unsuspectedly! I have said,
that but few skeletons have been found in Pompeii; all that have been met
with are covered with ornaments, and appear as in the act of escaping from
their hapless town, with what they could carry off of their most valuable
possessions; from which death would not relinquish his hold. More wealth is
supposed to have been buried in Herculaneum, from that which has already
been found therein; but owing to the excessive difficulty, time, and
expense, which the attempt to bring it to light would occasion, excavations
in this city, are now almost, if not entirely, abandoned; for it is to be
remembered, that Herculaneum was destroyed by a flood of liquid lava, which
as it cools, hardens into solid and impenetrable _rock_; whereas the hot
ashes of Vesuvius overwhelmed Pompeii, and consequently it is much less
difficult to clear.
[2] "Witness," said my friend, "the bracelets which I am now
wearing; they are modelled from a pair found in Pompeii." These
were made of gold, quite in the fashion of the present day;
beautifully chased, but by no means of an uncommon pattern.
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