By accident one town has been preserved to us in its entirety. In 79
A.D. the volcano of Vesuvius belched forth a torrent of liquid lava
and a rain of ashes, and two Roman cities were suddenly buried,
Herculaneum by lava, and Pompeii by ashes; the lava burnt the objects
it touched, while the ashes enveloped them, preserving them from the
air and keeping them intact. As we remove the ashes, Pompeii reappears
to us just as it was eighteen centuries ago. One still sees the
wheel-ruts in the pavement, the designs traced on the walls with
charcoal; in the houses, the pictures, the utensils, the furniture,
even the bread, the nuts, and olives, and here and there the skeleton
of an inhabitant surprised by the catastrophe. Monuments teach us
much about the ancient peoples. The science of monuments is called
Archæology.

=Inscriptions.=--By inscriptions one means all writings other than
books. Inscriptions are for the most part cut in stone, but some are
on plates of bronze. At Pompeii they have been found traced on the
walls in colors or with charcoal. Some have the character of
commemorative inscriptions just as these are now attached to our
statues and edifices; thus in the monument of Ancyra the emperor
Augustus publishes the story of his life.

The greatest number of inscriptions are epitaphs graven on tombs.
Certain others fill the function of our placards, containing, as they
do, a law or a regulation that was to be made public. The science of
inscriptions is called Epigraphy.

=Languages.=--The languages also which ancient peoples spoke throw
light on their history. Comparing the words of two different
languages, we perceive that the two have a common origin--an evidence