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Show tain the ,·a111 pomp of thi world, and discontinue to mercile sly tax the people in rder to npport and en large the Army and 1\avy-then and not until then will all Italy begin to rise from her ponrty and degradation and to express her real life in the channels of Art and Literature, th rough which she became renowned in the year ~ t hat are passed. The fo urtee nth clay of pril was spent a l Pompeii and ~lount Vesuviu . These tvvo in teresting places are inseparable and each adds to the hi storic importance of the other. The city of Pompeii was founded about the sixth century ll . C. b,· the Oscans and is located on the );eapolitan . Ri\'iera. During the century 13. C., it fell into the hands of the Roman and became one of the centers to which the ari. toeracy of Jtaly came and in which wealth and passion flowed in an unhindered tream. \mong it 30,000 inhabitants the g-reat Cicero and his associates were frequently seen and from R 111 there was brought e\·ery po sible luxury and extravagance until Pompeii became a place of "sensuous beauty," and a veritable " pleasure haunt of Paganism." T n the year 63 the earth hook and the city was well nigh destroyed, but. uhsequently it wa. rebuilt and its former life of voluptuou. ne. _ was resumed. The god of wine was greatly in e\'iclcnce, and judging from the number of buildings ancl places giH·n ove r to ignoble passion ancl the pictures that even yet may be seen upon the exhumed walls, Pompeii was the incarnation of all that excites the mind, overthrow the will, ancl destroys the :ouls of men. \\'hatevcr architectural beauty it may ha,·e had i all lost in the presence of its being utterly without moral concept and regard for other than that which Page Ninety- five |