and the distant noise of the waves, as they broke upon the shores of Herculaneum. There was something singular in the situation of this tranquil abode of Christian hospitality-a small cell at the foot of a volcano and in the midst of a tempest. The hermit presented to me the book in which strangers, who visit Vesuvius, are accustomed to make some memorandum. In this volume I did not find one remark worthy of recollection. The French indeed, with the good taste natural to our nation, had contented themselves with mentioning the date of their journey, or paying a compliment to the hermit for his hospitality. It would seem that this volcano had no very remarkable effect upon the visitors, which confirms me in the idea I some time since formed, namely, that grand objects and grand subjects are less capable of giving birth to great ideas than is generally supposed; for their grandeur being evident, all that is added, beyond this fact, becomes mere repetition. The "nascetur ridiculus mus" is true of all mountains. I left the hermitage at half past two o'clock, and continued to ascend the hill of lava, on which I had before proceeded. On my left was the valley, which separated me from the Somma; on my right the plain of the cone. Not a living creature did I see in this horrible region but a poor, lean, sallow, half-naked girl, who was bending under a load of faggots, which she had cut on the mountain. The clouds now entirely shut out the view; for the wind blew them upwards from the black plain, of which, if clear, I should have commanded the prospect, and caused them to pass over the lava road, upon which I was pursiing my way. I heard nothing but the sound of my mule's footsteps. At length I quitted the hill, bending to the right, and re-descending into the plain of lava, which adjoins the 1 cone of the volcano, and which I crossed lower down on my road to the hermitage; but even when in the midst of these calcined fragments, the mind can hardly form to itself an idea of the appearance which the district must assume, when covered with fire and molten metals by an eruption of Vesuvius. Dante had, perhaps, seen it when he describes in his Hell those showers of ever-burning fire, which descend slowly and in silence "come di neve in Alpe senza vento.” "Arivammo ad una landa Che dal suo letto ogni pianta rimove Lo spazzo er' un' arena arida e spessa Come di neve in Alpe senza vento. Snow was here visible in several places, and I sudden.. ly discovered at intervals Portici, Capri, Ischia, Pausilipi, the sea studded with the white sails of fishing boats, and the coast of the gulph of Naples, bordered with orange trees. It was a view of paradise from the infernal regions. On reaching the foot of the cone, we alighted from our mules. My guide gave me a long staff, and we began to climb the huge mass of cinders. The clouds closed in, the fog became more dense, and increasing darkness surrounded us. Behold me now at the top of Vesuvius, where I seated myself at the mouth of the volcano, wrote down what had hitherto occurred, and prepared myself for a descent into the crater, The sun appeared, from time to time, through the mass of vapours, which enveloped the whole mountain, and concealed from me one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, while it doubled the horrors of the place I was in. Vesuvius, thus separated by clouds from the enchanting country at its base, has the appearance of being placed in the completest desert, and the sort of terror, which it inspires, is in no degree, diminished by the spectacle of a flourishing city at its foot. I proposed to my guide that we should descend into the crater. He made several objections, but this was only to obtain a little more money; and we agreed upon a sum, which he received on the spot. He then took off his clothes, and we walked some time on the edge of the abyss, in order to find a part which was less perpendicular, and more commodious for our descent. The guide discovered one, and gave the signal for me to accompany him. We plunged down. Fancy us at the bottom of the gulph.* I despair of describing the chaos, which surrounded me. Let the reader figure to himself a basin, a thousand feet in circumference, and three hundred high, which forms itself into the shape of a funnel. Its borders or interior walls are furrowed by the liquid fire, which this basin has contained, and vomited forth. The projecting parts of these walls resemble those brick pillars, with which the Romans supported their enormous masonry. Large rocks are banging down in different parts, and their fragments mixed with cinders into a sort of paste, cover the bottom of the abyss. This bottom of the basin is ploughed and indented in various manners. Near the middle are three vents, or small mouths, recently opened, which discharged flames during the occupation of Naples by the French in 1798. Smoke proceeds from different points of the crater, especially on the side towards la Torre del Greco. On * There is fatigue, but very little danger attendant on a descent into the crater of Vesuvius, unless the investigator should be surprised by a sudden eruption. the opposite side, towards Caseste, I perceived flame. When you plunge your hand into the cinders, you find them of a burning heat, several inches under the surface. The general colour of the gulph is black as coal; but Providence, as I have often observed, can impart grace at his pleasure even to objects the most horrible. The lava, in some places, is tinged with azure, ultra-marine, yellow, and orange. Rocks of granite are warped and twisted by the action of fire, and bent to their very extre mities, so that they exhibit the semblance of the leaves of palms and acanthus. The volcanic matter having cooled on the rocks over which it flowed, many figures are thus formed, such as roses, girandoles, and ribbons. The rocks likewise assume the forms of plants and animals, and imitate the various figures, which are to be seen in agates. I particularly observed on a bluish rock, a white swan modelled in so perfect a manner that I could have almost sworn I beheld this beautiful bird sleeping on a placid lake, with its head bent under its wing, and its long neck stretched over its back like a roll of silk. "Ad vada Meandri concinit albus olor." I found here that perfect silence which I have, on other occasions, experienced at noon in the forests of America, when I have held my breath and heard nothing except the beating of my heart and temporal artery. It was only at intervals that gusts of wind, descending from the cone to the bottom of the crater, rustled through my clothes or whistled round my staff. I also heard some stones, which my guide kicked on one side, as he climbed through the cinders. A confused echo, similar to the jarring of metal or glass, prolonged the noise of the fall, and afterwards all was silent as death. Compare this gloomy silence with the dreadful thundering din, which shakes these very places, when the volcano vomits fire from its entrails, and covers the earth with darkness. A philosophical reflection may here be made, which excites our pity for the sad state of human affairs. What is it, in fact, but the famous revolutions of Empires, combined with the convulsions of nature, that changes the face of the earth and the ocean? A happy circumstance would it at least be, if men would not employ themselves in rendering each other miserable, during the short time that they are allowed to dwell together. Vesuvius has not once opened its abyss to swallow up cities, without its fury surprising mankind in the midst of blood and tears. What are the first signs of civilization and improved humanity, which have been found, during our days, under the lava of the volcano? Instruments of punishment and skeletons in chains!* Times alter, and human destinies are liable to the same inconstancy. "Life," says a Greek song, is like the wheels of a chariot." Trochos armatos gar oia Pliny lost his life from a wish to contemplate, at a distance, the volcano, in the centre of which I was now tranquilly seated. I saw the abyss smoking round me. I reflected that a few fathoms below me was a gulph of fire. I reflected that the volcano might at once disgorge its entrails, and launch me into the air with all the rocky fragments by which I was surrounded. What Providence conducted me hither? By what chance did the tempests of the American ocean cast me on the plains of Lavinia? " Lavinaque venit littora." I cannot refrain from returning to the agitations of this * At Pompeia. 1 |