Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1827-03-29

IA.
ture commenced hers, and this unfortunate lit
tie city was, by curious fate, at once TO be ex.
tinguished and preserved, to perish from the
face Of the Roman empire, and to live when
Rome was nest OF Monks and Mummers, and
her empire torn into fragments for Turk, Rus.
sian, Austrian, Prussian, and the whole hos, Of
barbarian names that were once as the dus, Of
her feet In the year Of the Christian era s.,
an earthquake showed the city on wha, tenure
her lease was held. Whole streets were thrown
down, and The evidences Of hasty repair are
still 10 be detected.
From this period, occasional warnings were
given in slight shocks; until, in the year '7e,
Vesu,ius poured out all his old accumulation
of ,errors at once, and on the clearing away Of
the cloud Of FIRE and ashes which covered Cam.
pania for four days, Pompeii, with all its null
titude, was gone. The Romans seem to have
been as fond of Villas as if every soul OF them
had made fortunes in Cheapside, and the whole
southern coast was covered with the summer
palaces Of those lords Of the world. Vesu,.
US is now formidable foundation for house
whose inhabitants may not wish to be sucked
into furnace ten thousand fathoms deep, Or
roasted sub acre aperio; but il was then as'cep
and had nere- flung up spark or stone from
time immemorlai.
TO those who look upon it now in its ,erors;
grim, blasted, and lifting up IS sooty forehead
among the piles Of perpetual smoke that are
10 be enlightened only by its bursts OF fire, the
very throne Of Pluto and Vulcan together, no
force of fancy may picture what it was when
the Roman built his palaces and pavilions on
its side. pyramid Of three thousand fee.
high, painted over with gardens, forest, vine
yard and orchard, ripening under the southern
sun, zoned with colonades, and turrcls, and
golden roofs, and marble porticos, with the
eternal azure Of the Campanian sky for its Ca
nopy, and the Mediterranean at its feet, glitter.
ing in the colors Of sunshine noon and evening,
like an infinite Turkey carpet let down from the
steps Of throne-all this was turned into Gin
ders, lava and hot water, on (if we can trust to
chronology the first day OF November, Ammo
Domini 70, in the first year OF the Emperor
Titus. The whole story is told in the younger
Pliny's letters; or, if the illustration OF ore
who thought himself born for describer Do
Cass,us, be sought, it will be found that this
eruption was worthy the work il had to do and
was handsome recompcnse Cor the long Stun,
Der Of the volcano. The continent, throughout
its whole southern range, probably felt this Vi
gorous awakening. Rome was covered with
the ashes, Of which Northern Africa, Egypt
and A sia Minor had their share. The sun was
turned into blood and darkness, and the people
thought that the destruction Of the world wa;
come.
Al the close Of the eruption, Vesusius stood
forth the naked giant that he is at this hour
the palaces and the gardens were all dust and
air-the sky was stained with that cloud which
still sits like a crown of wrath upon his brow
the plain at his foot, where Herculaneum and
Pompeii spread their circuses and temples, like
children's TOYS, was covered over with sand,
charco and smoke--and the whole was left for
a mighty moral against the danger of trusting
TO the sleep of volcano.
Al was then at an end with the cities below;
the population were burnt, and had 40 more
need of houses, the Roman MOBILES had no pas
sion for combustion, and kept aloof; the wind,
and RAIN, robbers and the ,noiaria, were the
sole tenants OF The land; and in this way rolled
fifteen hundred years over the bones of the yin,.
ners, sailors, and snug cilizens ofthe Vesuyaa
cities But their time was 10 come; and their
beds were to be perforated by French and Nea
politan pick-axes, and TO be visited by English
feet, and sketched, and written about, and Ii.
lhographed, ill allthe world wished they had
never been disturbed. The first discoveries
were accidental, for no NeapoliVan ever struck
spade into the ground that he could help, nor
harbored voluntary idea but of macaroni, in
trigue, monkery, or the gaming table-The
spade struck upon key, which, of course, be,
longed 10 door; the door had an inscription, *
the names Of the buried cities were brought to
light to the boundless perplexity Of the learned
the mercile.s curiosity Of the blue stockings oil
the l7th century, and all Others to come, and
the thankless, reckless, and ridiculous profit Of
that whole race of rascality, the guides, cce-
rones, abbes, and anliquarians.
But Italian vigor is Of all things the most
easily exhausted, where il has not the lash or
the bride to feed its waste, and the cities Stun
bered Tor twenty years more, ill, III, Duke,
who was digging for marbles to birn into nor
tar, found Hercules, and whole heap Of
fractured beauties, row Of Greek columns,
a little temple. Again the cities slumberet,
till, in 1888, king Of Naples, on whom lgh
may the earth rest, commenced digging, and |
streets, temples, theatres, opened out to the sun
to De at rest 10 more.
So few details o! the original catastrophe are
to be found in historians, that we can scarcely
estimate the actual human suffering which is
after all, almost the only thing to be considered
as misfortune. tits probable that the popu'
latiou OF, at least, Pompeii, had lime 10 make