State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1831-1836, 1836-06-14
Correspondence Of the Boston Atlas.
ASCENT OF MOUNT NESUNIUS.

At length / stand upon the summit Of
Nesuvus. How wide and delightful is the
surrounding view Lo, Naples and its
beautiful bay, with Capri rising in purple
bloom from its breast. Yonder are the
peaks of the distant islands, Ischia and
Procida. Here is the site where stood, and
still stands, HcrculanGum. There is Pom
pei. Cuwing upon my left arm is the
Mediterranean and yonder hills are coy
cred with cities, that seen in the dim dis
lance by an imaginative eye, may well re-
call images of the beauty and magnitcence,
that we have been taught TO believe once
looked out from those classical shores.
What bore to get to the top of this
volcano. No sooner had our carriage turn
ed from the high road that lies above Her.
culancum, into the path leading hitherward
than fifty importunate and ragged mcl,
women and children beset US, offering
while each declared 81 speaks Ingics, y
horses, mules, and donkeys, and their c 'rn
most invaluable services. We are each
upon donkey, and amidst the barking OF
ours, and the shouts of twenty boys md
men, cheering on the Stubborn animals by
muccarroni; amidst vineyards, and lava
going up to the hermitage.
What an animal is this donkey, this jack,
now lazily bearing me on Even in his
best phases, when sheared and scraped, he
seems 10 me far from being desirable
sight, resembling more in his dusliy hue, Il
mouse vastly magnified, than Il condensed
piece of bone and muscle for the whip of
man. But when seen rs now, rough and
foul, his long ears Tapping in the sun, his
nose uhsiinately within an inch of the
earth, and his pace that ut which Il snail
might laugh, lie is past all endurance; he
has no paragon but himself. And yet with
all his uglness and obstinacy, and laziueSs
his bones and muscles are converted into
most valuable use by this, ! will not say
more obstinate, but certainly more lazy
people 1t is not enough that they yoke
him with an OK, or a horse, quadruple his
dimensions; il is not enough that they
oitentimes couple his single self to drag
along some six, or eight, or ten Lazzaroni
in sort of gig, around which they hang
like so many swarmed bees it is moi
enough that his back is heaped with load
upon load until he resembles mountain in
miniature still more--if by reason of much
loading, the driver finds the back of the
animal quite untenautabIe, does he there
fore give up hope Of being aided in his pc
destrian progress? No. Invariably seeing
with most fierce and resoute determination
close and tight upon the root of the faded
animals tail, he Says himself back to an
angle with the earth of near fory-fve de-
grees, and compcls him in style quite
picturesque, to drag along not merely Il
great burden of wine and olives, but like
wise his own most stupid, stolid lazy and
maccaroni iated frame. Yet does your
lack endure all this, and that too with stub
born, logged Indifference. Indeed, he i,
the most Indifferent, ! was about to say, the
most passionless, animal, have ever met
| cannot say passlonless. There is one
passion, shall | call it emotion? that seem;
| thoroughly to interpenetrate and absorb his
whole existence. Need that passions name
/ be spoken? When the only object worthy
Of awakening il into audible manifestation
! is near, his ears start from their wuntet
repose, his eye looks out amin atedll
through its lazy lids, and sounds are heard
so minstrelsy unknown that in thei
spasmodic and impatient energy, might fit
/ " be likeued to those which have immor
talized his great progenitor. But even whcl
.
wavside through the long sul,ry sulnme
day, or TRANQUILITY browsing upon the laurc
leaves that lie in his path, he seems to yol
not altogether in reEuse. His face and al
titude have an intensely bordering expires
sion. You deem him mcdilatng upon tn
past or the future, and unbidden, to you
memory come the words otthe cratic bare
oils dream Of light. from morn till nigh
Is love, still love"
We arrive at the Hermitage, and proper
" noticing an uncorcned bottle ofthe friar'
iacryma christi, we move to the last foot G
the volcano. Thirty minutes sutliced t
bring me 10 the top. The first sound
heard, was that OF Il cockney EUglishman'
voice, who had preceded me Few minute:
Looking into the abyss below, he squeak
/, ingly exclaimed, that's damned curious
lis next remark us he cambcred over som
rocks was, with AN oath, quite too stupoI
dous for the occasion, "By - there
f snow
Standing on the cr0ter's brink, nolhn
more imprgsses me than the rucr sumom
ding silence. Out from this mighty nout
and thoraX of the earlh's wrath, are poul
, ed clouds after clouds-not black, or eve
; dusky, put of purest white restless an
wuvcrlnG volumes upon volumes boom M
vet all is noiscless. No hollow murmurin
+ - no hiss Of molten lava nothing NEE
: the ear 20 break the silence almost nppa
ling. a stone is cast into the crater
BreahIessly we hear lis downward bound
growing fainter and more faint. We i'm,
, zine lis course is stopped, but Snuining tit
ear another dim reverberation comes II
from those far depths. ! know nothin
I that better expresses the successive strok,
: ofthe doWncust stone upon the sides of III
craler than the syllnbes ola famous lla
ian word, Rim, silence, bonn, silence, b.
, silence, ud silence, no, silence that endure
res We tried to walk around the crate
but such was the most sulphurous and to
meniing smoke, that we could not. Hayin