My object in visiting Naples was to view that celebrated relic of
antiquity--the city of Pompeii, of which, about one half is now supposed to
be cleared. The workmen proceed but slowly, nevertheless something is
always being done, and some new remnant of antiquity is almost daily
brought to light; indeed, a fine statue was discovered, almost immediately
after my visit to this interesting place, but as I had quitted Naples I
could not return to see it. A stranger, is I think, apt to be much
disappointed in the size of Pompeii; it was on the whole, not more than
three miles through, and is rather to be considered the model of a town,
than one in itself. In fact, it is merely an Italian villa, or properly, a
collection of villas; and the extreme smallness of what we may justly term
the citizens' _boxes_, is another source of astonishment to those who have
been used to contemplate Roman architecture in the magnificence of
magnitude. Pompeii however, must always interest the intelligent observer,
not more on account of its awful and melancholy associations, than for the
opportunity which it affords, of remarking the extreme similarity existing
between the modes of living _then_, and _now_. "'Tis Greece, but living
Greece no more!" for in truth, we are enabled to surmise, from the relics
of this buried and disinterred town, that manners and customs, arts,
sciences, and trades, have undergone but little change in Italy since the
period of its inhumation until now. In Pompeii, the shops of the baker and
chemist are particularly worthy of attention, for you might really fancy
yourself stepped into a modern _bottéga_ in each of these; but, the museum
of Naples, wherein are deposited most of the articles dug from Pompeii,
Herculaneum, and Pæstum, is a most extraordinary lion, and one which cannot
fail to affect very deeply the spectators; there you may behold furniture,
arms, and trinkets; and the jewellery is, I can assure you, both in
materials, pattern, and workmanship, very similar indeed to that at present