y an
arch of enormous size, tinged by the many colored foliage and blossoms
and supporting an irregular pyramid overgrown like itself with the
all-pervading vegetation. Around rise other crags and other peaks, all
arrayed and the deformity of their vast desolation softened down by
the undecaying investiture of nature. Come to Rome--it is a scene by
which expression is overpowered, which words can not convey.

Still winding up one-half of the shattered pyramids, by the path
through the blooming wood, you come to a little mossy lawn surrounded
by the wild shrubs; it is overgrown with anemones, wall flowers and
violets, whose stalks pierce the starry moss, and with radiant blue
flowers whose name I know not, and which scatter through the air the
divinest odor; which, as you recline under the shade of the ruin,
produces sensations of voluptuous faintness, like the combinations of
sweet music. The paths still wind on, threading the perplexed
windings, other labyrinths, other lawns, deep dells of wood, and lofty
rocks and terrific chasms. When I tell you that these ruins cover
several acres and that the paths alone penetrate at least half their
extent, your imagination will fill up all that I am unable to express
of the astonishing scene.

III

THE RUINS OF POMPEII[39]

Since you last heard from me we have been to see Pompeii and we are
now waiting for the return of spring weather, to visit, first Paestum,
and then the islands; after which we shall return to Rome. I was
astonished at the remains of this city. I had no conception of
anything so perfect yet remaining. My idea of the mode of its
destruction was this: first an earthquake came and shattered it, and
unroofed almost all its temples and split its columns; then a rain of
light small pumice-stones fell; then torrents of boiling water mixt
with ashes filled up its crevices.

A wide flat hill from which the city was excavated is now covered with
woods, and you see the tombs and theaters, the temples and houses,
surrounded by uninhabited wilderness. We entered the town from the
sides toward the sea, and first saw two theaters; one more magnificent
than the other, strewn with the ruins of the white marble which formed
their seats and cornices, wrought with deep bold sculpture. In the
front between the stage and the seats is the circular space
occasionally occupied by the chorus. The stage is very narrow but long
and divided from this space by a narrow enclos