t of a slave.

Various theories as to the exact mode by which Pompeii was destroyed
have been invented by the ingenious; I have adopted that which is the
most generally received, and which, upon inspecting the strata, appears
the only one admissible by common sense; namely, a destruction by
showers of ashes and boiling water, mingled with frequent irruptions of
large stones, and aided by partial convulsions of the earth.
Herculaneum, on the contrary, appears to have received not only the
showers of ashes, but also inundations from molten lava; and the streams
referred to must be considered as destined for that city rather than for
Pompeii. Volcanic lightnings were evidently among the engines of ruin at
Pompeii. Papyrus, and other of the more inflammable materials, are found
in a burned state. Some substances in metal are partially melted; and a
bronze statue is completely shivered, as by lightning. Upon the
whole--excepting only the inevitable poetic license of shortening the
time which the destruction occupied--I believe my description of that
awful event is very little assisted by invention, and will be found not
the less accurate for its appearance in a romance.

FOOTNOTES:

[41] The Romans used to lie or walk naked in the sun, after anointing
their bodies with oil, which was esteemed as greatly contributing to
health, and therefore daily practised by them. This custom, however, of
anointing themselves, is inveighed against by the satirists as in the
number of their luxurious indulgences; but since we find the elder Pliny
here, and the amiable Spurinna in a former letter, practising this
method, we cannot suppose the thing itself was esteemed unmanly, but
only when it was attended with some particular circumstances of an
over-refined delicacy.

[42] About six miles distant from Naples.

[43] An island near Naples, now called Capri.

[44] The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers held that the world was to be
destroyed by fire, and all things fall again into original chaos; not
excepting even the national gods themselves from the destruction of this
general conflagration.

[45] Destroyed A.D. 79; first discovered A.D. 1750.

THE JEWS' LAST STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM: THEIR FINAL DISPERSION

A.D. 132

CHARLES MERIVALE

The successful revolt of the Maccabees against the bloody
persecutions of the Assyrian king Antiochus Epiphanes, about B.C.
164, inaugurated a glorious epoch in Jewish history. Fr