d himself here in this Temple of Isis,
the stream of wisdom would always begin to flow.

The next place to which Michael Angelo intended to take them was
the amphitheatre, which could be seen from where they were standing.
All this time David had been more eager than any of the others,
and far more profoundly moved. He felt his soul stirred to its
inmost depth by the thrilling scenes through which he had been
moving. It seemed to him as though there were revealed here to
his eyes, in one glance, all that he had been laboriously acquiring
from books by the study of years. But this was better than books.
These Roman houses, into which he could walk, were far better than
any number of plans or engraved prints, however accurately done.
These temples afforded an insight into the old pagan religion better
far than volumes of description. These streets, and shops, and
public squares, and wall, and gates, and tombs, all gave him an
insight into the departed Roman civilization that was far fresher,
and more vivid, and more profound, than any that he had ever gained
before. It seemed to him that one day was too small for such a
place. He must come again and again, he thought. He was unwilling
to go on with the rest, but lingered longer than any over each
spot, and was always the last to quit any place which they visited.

They stopped on their way at the Tragic and Comic Theatres, and
at length reached the Amphitheatre itself. This edifice is by
far the largest in the city, and is better preserved than any.
It is built of large blocks of a dark volcanic stone, and
constructed in that massive style which the Romans lived, and of
which they have left the best examples in these huge amphitheatres.
As this Amphitheatre now stands, it might still serve for one of
those displays for which it was built. Tier after tier those
seats arise, which once had accommodations for fifteen or twenty
thousand human beings. On these, it is said, the Pompeians were
seated when that awful volcanic storm burst forth by which the
city was rained. Down from these seats they fled in wildest
disorder, all panic-stricken, rushing down the steps, and crowding
through the doorways, trampling one another under foot, in that
mad race for life; while overhead the storm gathered darker and
darker, and the showers of ashes fell, and the suffocating
sulphuric vapors arose, and amid the volcanic storm the lightnings
of the sky flashed forth, illuminating all the