Postscript to No. I. — Account of Mount Vesuvius. 1B3 



culaneum, Pompeii, or Stabiae. Iil an antiquarian point of view, 

 I have done little in this paper ; but the title I have adopted 

 for these outlines of " Physical Notices" warns me not to de- 

 part too far from the object proposed. i 

 In the preceding pages, we have considered the primitive 

 condition of the once flourishing cities of Campania. We drew 

 from ancient sources and combined information regarding their 

 size, situation, and antiquity, more especially as regarded their 

 rediscovery. We contemplated the circumstances of the event 

 by which they were destroyed, and, with the calm abstraction 

 which the lapse of near 2000 years has afforded, we attempted 

 to trace the facts deducible from the glowing description hand- 

 ed down to us by an eye-witness of the catastrophe. We pas- 

 sed over the lengthened period of their awful repose amidst the 

 ruins of nature, and only paused to notice the conflicting 

 opinions of antiquaries after the revival of letters, regarding 

 the site and history of those towns, over which time as well 

 as nature had thrown her veil ; and we resumed the thread of 

 the inquiry, when circumstances brought to light these stupen- 

 dous monuments of antiquity, preserved to the eyes of later 

 generations almost miraculously, by a cause which in the course 

 of time may never again produce a parallel event ; which 

 opened a mine of exhaustless wealth to all who profess any 

 regard for the history of art, of the human race, or of the hu- 

 man mind. " This scene of a city," says the elegant Eustace, 

 *' raised from the grave where it had lain forgotten during the 

 long night of eighteen centuries, when once beheld, must re- 

 main for ever pictured on the imagination ; and whenever it pre- 

 sents itself to the fancy, it comes like the recollection of an 

 awful apparition, accompanied by thoughts and emotions so- 

 lemn and melancholy !" A 



Postscript to No. I. of these Notices — on Mount Vesuvius, 



Since the publication of my paper on Mount Vesuvius, I 

 have consulted Humboldt's small work, entitled " Tableaux 

 de la Nature,'"' ]ust published at Paris, which contains a paper 

 on the structure and action of volcanos, part of which is es- 

 pecially directed to Mount Vesuvius ; and I shall here subjoin 



i. 



