s it necessary to name it?
It is the glory of the Neapolitans and the object of their patriotic
feelings; their country is distinguished by this phenomenon. Oswald had
Corinne carried in a kind of palanquin as far as the hermitage of St
Salvador, which is half way up the mountain, and where travellers repose
before they undertake to climb the summit. He rode by her side to watch
those who carried her, and the more his heart was filled with the
generous thoughts that nature and history inspire, the more he adored
Corinne.

At the foot of Vesuvius the country is the most fertile and best
cultivated that can be found in the kingdom of Naples, that is to say,
in the country of Europe most favoured of heaven. The celebrated vine,
whose wine is called _Lacryma Christi_, grows in this spot, and by the
side of lands which have been laid waste by the lava. One would say that
nature has made a last effort in this spot, so near the Volcano, and has
decked herself in her richest attire before her death. In proportion as
we ascend the mountain, we discover on turning round, Naples, and the
beautiful country that surrounds it. The rays of the sun make the sea
sparkle like precious stones; but all the splendour of the creation is
extinguished by degrees as we approach the land of ashes and smoke which
announces the vicinity of the Volcano. The ferruginous lava of preceding
years has traced in the earth deep and sable furrows, and all around
them is barren. At a certain height not a bird is seen to fly, at
another, plants become very scarce, then even the insects find nothing
to subsist on in the arid soil. At length every living thing disappears;
you enter the empire of death, and the pulverised ashes alone roll
beneath your uncertain feet.

Ne griggi ne armenti
Guida bifolco, mai guida pastore

_Neither flocks nor herds does the husbandman or the shepherd ever guide
to this spot._

Here dwells a hermit on the confines of life and death. A tree, the
last farewell of vegetation, grows before his door: and it is beneath
the shadow of its pale foliage that travellers are accustomed to wait
the approach of night, to continue their route; for during the day, the
fires of Vesuvius are only perceived like a cloud of smoke, and the
lava, so bright and burning in the night, appears black before the beams
of the sun. This metamorphosis itself is a fine spectacle, which renews
every evening that astonishment which the continuity o