OCR Text |
Show TrB ERIA debases and cle. troys. Little i tl1e wonder that old \ ·esuYi us threw over that city a co,·ering of red hot stones and ashes and pumice, in the year 79, until it inhabitants fl ed and the city itself was buried. Distress and d esolation and abandonment were on every . ide. The city of un speakable li centiousn ess became a heap of hardened as hes which was ultim ately overgrown wi th weeds and 0 Tass. Exca\ alions were from time to time undertaken and some success was had , but it remained for the It a lian Covernment to take the matter up and to push it with remarkable result.. T his was beg-un in ] 8GO, and the chie f exca\'ato r s, Fiorelli and Ruggiero, have won for th emse h·es and the ( ;o ,·ernm ent un st intecl praise and eli . tinction. 1\fost of the s tre ts of Pompeii are now open. and through th em eager pilgrims make th eir way with an ever-increas ing sense of \\'Onder and amazement and , ad ness of spirit. The laws of this world are again t eli obedi ence. The noble virtues of life can not he pro titutcd without punishment. Dcauty of form and feature cannot he clraggecl into the ha unts of the cnsuous without degradation and death. Rio·htcousncss i. the dominant factor in the universe of Cod and blessed arc they that conform their li,·cs thereto. ha,·e . aid that \ ' c uvius and Pompeii arc inseparable. They may be historically in separable but they arc quite distinct. Pompeii is located on the . ea level, but \r esm·ius towers thou sands of feet in the air. One was the center of de tructi,·e passion and the ot her a chimney through which the fires that smoulder in the bosom of the earth wer poured fort h in such consummg Yolumc a<; to make life impossible in its way. The terrible g randeur of \ "esuvius! Page :-,rincty-~cvc n |