Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-01-19
NAPIER

can as little be described as exaggerated.
The extreme points of the two projecting
arms which enclose the bay on the north
west and northeast, are about twenty
miles distant from each other in a right
line. They are similar in their shape and
character, but by no means identical.
Thesouthern promontory stretches farther
out to sea; but the balance is restored by
the island of Ischia on the north, which is
much larger and more distant from the
land than its southern sister Capri. The
curve of the gulf lying between them is
not regular, but the line of the coast
makes nearly right angle at Naples and
also at Castellamare; the intervening
space being nearly straight. Vesuvius
occupies point about halfway between
the projecting points. The whole space
is crowded with human life, and COM
prises within itself nearly every form of
beauty into which earth and water can
be moulded. On one side, from a LIQUID
plain Of the most dazzling blue, range
of mountains, the peaks of which are for
many months covered with snow, rise
into the air. Forests of oak and chestnut
encircle them midway. Between them
and the sea, there is hardly q terrace of
level land, and the cliffs that line that
tideless shore are often crowned and
draped with luxuriant vegetation. In
another direction, the primitive features
are less grand; but the action of volcanic
agencies has given great variety of sur
face within small compass. Number
loco poiDfc q ro ornxr,po1 nth ,,:II.. -
asteries and houses, linked together by a
glowing succession of orange groves,
vineyards, orchards, and gardens. Over
all the unrivalled scene, Vesuvius towers
and reigns; forming the point of CONVEX
gence in which all the lines of beauty and
grandeur meet. l have never seen a
mountain that so impresses the mind as
this. Although not quite four thousand
feet high, it produces all the effect of a
much greater elevation, because it's whole
bulk from the level of the sea to its sum-
NIT, is seen at glance. Besides, the
peculiar interest which belongs to it as
volcano, it is remarkable for its flowing
and graceful outline, and the symmetri-
cal regularity of it's shape. A painter
could nowhere find better model from
which to draw an ideal mountain. But
when to this merely lineal beauty, we
add the mysterious and awful power of
which its smoke and fire are symbols,
and those fearful energies of destruction
which the Imagination magnifes at will,
it becomes feature in the Landscape,
which, considering its position and prox-
imities, has no parallel on the globe. 1t
would seem as if volcanic agency were
necessary TO crown the earth with it's
most impressive loveliness and grandeur,
just as human face never reveals all its
beauty till passion burns in the eve and
trembles on the lip. The action of fire
alone heaves up those sheer walls and
notched battlements of rock, and sets the
mountain lake in those deep and wooded
sockets, by which the most expressive
landscapes arc formed, and through
which great effects are produced without
the aid of great space. Water shapes
and smooths the earth into something
like Grecian regularity of outline, but
fire sharpens and points it after Gothic
types.
The whole line of coast from Pozzuoli
to Sorrento repeats and renews the same
curves and waves of beauty. The land
is rounded, scooped, and hollowed; hold
ing out .jutting promonotories and projec-
tions, like arms of invitation, to the sea.
No rigid lines of defence are thrown up !;
no castellated masses of granite stand
along the coast like line-of. battle ships
drawn up for an engagement; no where
is an expression of defiance stamped upon
the scene. Along the rocky and iron.
bound shores of New England, the jurc-
ton of the Sea and the land is like the
meeting of enemies under a flag of truce;
even the sunshine and the calm speak of
conflicts past and to come. Upon the
practical and unromantic coast of Eng.
land, their meeting is like that of men
of business who have come together to
talk over bargain. But in the Bay of
Naples the meeting of the sea and the
land is like the embrace of long-parted
lovers. The earth is q beautiful and i'm
passioned Hero, and the waves lie upon
her bosom like the dripping locks of
Leander.
Naples itself is only the core and nu.
cleus of this fertile and populous shore,
which every where swarms with Life and