we sat and pulled out our oranges
and figs and bread (sorry fare, you will say) and started to eat. Here
was a magnificent spectacle. Above and between the multitudinous
shafts of the sunshiny columns was seen the sea, reflecting the purple
heaven of noon above it, and supporting, as it were, on its lips the
dark lofty mountains of Sorrento, of a blue indescribably deep, and
tinged toward their summits with streaks of new fallen snow. Between
was one small green island. To the right was Capreae, Inarnine,
Prochyta, and Misenum. Behind was the single summit of Vesuvius,
rolling forth volumes of thick white smoke, whose foam-like column was
sometimes darted into the clear dark sky and fell in little streaks
along the wind. Between Vesuvius and the nearer mountains, as through
a chasm, was seen the main line of the loftiest Apenines to the east.
The day was radiated and warm. Every now and then we heard the
subterranean thunder of Vesuvius; its distant and deep peals seem to
shake the very air and light of day, which interpenetrated our frames
with a sudden and tremendous sound. The scene was what the Greeks
beheld (Pompeii, you know, was a Greek city). They lived in harmony
with nature, and the interstices of their incomparable columns were
portals, as it were, to admit the spirit of beauty which animates this
glorious universe to visit those whom it inspired. If such is Pompeii,
what was Athens? What scene was exhibited from the Acropolis, the
Parthenon, and the temples of Hercules, and Theseus and the Winds? The
islands and the AEgean Sea, the mountains of Argolis, and the peaks of
Pindus and Olympus, with the darkness of the Boeotian forests
interspersed?

From the Forum we went to another public place, a triangular portico
half enclosing the ruins of an enormous temple. It is built on the
edge of the hill overlooking the sea. The black point is the temple.
In the apex of the triangle stand an altar and a fountain, and before
the altar once stood the statue of the builder of the portico.

Returning hence and following the consular road, we came to the
eastern gate of the city. The walls are of enormous strength and
inclose a space of three miles. On each side of the wall beyond the
gate are built the tombs. How unlike ours! They seem not so much
hiding-places for that which must decay as voluptuous chambers of
immortal spirits. They are of marble radiantly white; and two
especially beautiful are loaded with exquisite