things that mended the defects of naturefalse teeth, wigs, false eye-brows, odoriferous waters, ointments, perfumes and rouge, which they called purpurissum, in small crystal phials." How delightful it would have been, and what a spell it must have thrown around the whole place, to see, although through “a crystal medium," this curious scene! Where is she for whom the preparation is made? Has she proceeded to the bath, arrayed in the loose floating garment to which Roman dames on these occasions were accustomed? Observe how that metal mirror shines, as though even in the absence of its owner it reflected back some portion of its borrowed beauty. Where are her tire-women-her cosmeta? why do they not hasten to their duty? her head-gear lies uncurled and loose; her eye-brows are unsmoothed; and her teeth, heaven help us! will be distinguished by the eagle-eye of the inquisitive lover. Hark! she comes; I hear the rustling of her garments, and the Roman virgin will presently appear in all her classic dignity! Alas! such dreams would be dissipated by very different objects. The rags of some itinerant lazzaroni might occupy the image which

the flowing folds of ancient costume had elicited ; and a putrifying sore surrounded with coagulated filth, like Vesuvius amid its lava, would be presented for the fresh glowing countenance of a youthful maiden, just emancipated from the luxury of the bath.

In one of the Arabian tales, we have an account of a whole city turned suddenly into stone. Every thing remains in its original position, "Les "lifeless, but life-like." peintures, les bronzes étaient encore dans leur beauté première, et tout ce qui peut servir aux usages domestiques est conservé d'une manière effrayante. Les amphores sont encore préparées pour le festin du jour suivant ; la farine qui allait être pétrie est encore là: les restes d'une femme sont encore ornés des parures qu'elle portait dans le jour de fête, que le volcan a troublé, et ses bras desséchés ne remplissent plus le bracelet des pierreries qui les

Whether Madame de Stael ever witnessed Pompeii in the state here described, and in which it doubtless was, is a matter for question.

It seems probable, that the particulars alluded to would be removed the moment they were discovered. But certainly it is Pompeii, so described, or so seen, that might have given rise to the fiction in the Arabian tales. And in seeing the desolation of the Roman city, we have the best possible conception not only of it, but of the petrified city in Upper Egypt, mentioned in Perry's "View of the Levant, where it is said, many statues of men and women are at this day to be seen. This, perhaps, is the origin of the Arabian figment.

It has been asserted by Dion Cassius, a Roman historian, who flourished about a century and a half after the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii, by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, that the inhabitants of one or both of the above-mentioned cities were overwhelmed by the lava-flood as they witnessed a theatrical representation. This is considered by Mr. Eustace as so palpable an absurdity, that it is difficult to conceive how the historian could relate it with so much gravity. The reasons are, that the first agitation united to the threatening aspect of the mountain, must have banished all inclination for mirth; that

the number of skeletons discovered among the ruins, does not bear out the supposition, and that it may even be questioned, whether one skeleton was found in or near the theatre. I will not urge, in this place, the truth of that ancient maxim, "Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat," but I will ask, whether the reiterated warnings of approaching destruction were sufficient to admonish JERUSALEM of its fate? If the first commotions of the earth produced, as we know they did, little real injury; if the smoke and partial emissions of flame or admit it to have been lava-occasioned in the first instance no positive or general harm, we know well enough that the indications, however terrible, would lose their terror through the frequency of the occurrence, and the throb of apprehension subside into comparative security. Mr. Eustace remarks, (and admitting the fact, I should draw from it a different inference,) that the inhabitants of this country were not then accustomed to volcanic phenomena. An earthquake, however, sixteen years previously, overthrew part of the town, which they then rebuilt; and might at the same time have acquired some insight

into the cause and the consequence. But granting that they were ignorant of both, surely this very circumstance would contribute to lull them the more into inertness! During a cessation of the convulsed and agitated state of the mountain, they might have sought to lose the remembrance of their solicitude in the mimicry of the stage, and, in such a moment, have been hurried to their graves! The very multitude compressed closely together in the last desperate effort to escape, would, when the fiery mass surprised them, promote their own dissolution: and the concavity of the theatre receiving into its bosom a more than common share of the ignited particles, must also have aided a calcination, which the weight of the superincumbent strata reduced at length to powder. This would account, I think, very satisfactorily for the small number of skeletons which have been found: though let it be remembered, that in all probability not above one-third of the city has been uncovered. The excavations which are now going on, prove this to demonstration; and, but two months ago, a splendid bath, about which the workmen were busy when I visited Pompeii, was