1797-] 
of houfes, by a court in the middle of the 
buildmg, which the Romans kept open 
to the light and air in fine weather, and 
proteéted by an awning from the fall of 
rain. At the entrance of one of the 
dwellings, 1 was'much pleafed with the 
fancy of incrufting the kind word /alve 
in the Mofaic pavement under foot.— 
That elaborate and coftly fort of work 
compofes the floor of every apartment ; 
and, added to the beautiful frefcoes that 
decorate the walls, gives a high idea of 
Roman refinement—a refinement very 
inconfiftent with the public expofure of 
the obfcene object | have already alluded 
to, which ftands carved in ftone over the 
door of a brothel, ftaring the blufhing 
virgin in the face, and giving fhameful 
note of the infamous commerce carried 
on within. 
If the flow progrefs of the Neapoli- 
tans at Pompeia, defrauding the prefent 
age of many interefting difcoveries, be 
‘blameable, the total fiop put to all far- 
ther excavation at Herculaneum is full 
more to be deplored. ‘The magnitude 
of the town, the correfponding import- 
‘ance of its antiquities, and the ftate in 
which the manufcripts at the Mufeum 
were produced, render the farther pro- 
fecution of the work highly defirable. — 
The reafons affigned for delifting, are, 
the hardnefs of the volcanic matter, and 
the danger of difturbing the foundations . 
of the town’ and palace of. Portici. It 
may, however, be reafonably doubted, 
whether what is below, be not more va- 
luable than what is above the furface ; 
or, at any rate, whether the fafety of 
the fuperfiru€ture might not be recon- 
-eiled with the intereft of {cience, by pro- 
ceeding with proper caution, and by 
giving a fufficient fupport to the parts 
undermined, as is done in the quarries 
that extend from the fuburbs to the cen- 
tre of Paris ? Very foon, all opportu- 
nity may be loft of making the earth 
furrender the riches its contains.—A tor- 
rent of liquid lava may come—pouring 
down from Vefuvius—and obliterate the 
fite of the ancient city, or, at leaft, 
render all farther excavation a matter of 
real impracticability. Nor would this 
be the only misfortune, fince. the curious 
improvidence of the Neapolitan govern- 
ment has placed all their collection of 
antiquities on this pr¢carious fpot, to be 
again overwhelmed, in cafe of the pro- 
bable event FT am fuppofing. ‘Then, 
with the manuferipts, would be devoted 
to deftruétion all thofe ancient models, 
which, within thefe few years, have pro- 
Prefent State of the Ruing at Portici. 
.tran{mitting to us 
347 
bably done more to improve the publie 
tafte, and that of our manufactures, 
than the cultivation of the arts had ef- 
fected in two or three centuries before. 
dt is truly wonderful to fee, how far the 
Romans, inftracted by the Greeks, car- 
ried their elegance ; andto what humble 
obj-éts it extended. The meaneft kit- 
chen utenfil is conflantly wrought after 
fome beautiful defign; their common 
fieel-yards generally terminate in the 
head of afnake, a ram, or a man, ex- 
quifitely fathioned; and even their 
weights are adorned with equal art. 
Befides the improvement of our tafte, 
Iam ftrongly inclined to believe, thar 
We owe tothe ancients a very convenient 
utenfil, which is generally fuppofed to be 
of modern invention. Among the vef- 
{els of bronze, that were many yéars ago 
dug out of Herculaneum, is one, exactly 
refembling our tea-urns—I mean thofe 
of the fhortett and moft elegant form. 
Like them, it has a place in the middle 
to receive the heated mafs of metal, that 
ferves to keep the water. in ebullition. 
This exaét fimilitude, joined to the time 
of its difcovery, which appears to have 
been a few years earlier than the ufe of 
the tea-urn in England, makes it highly 
probable, that the /iz-difant inventor of 
the latter, went to Portici for the idea, 
or-received it.from that place. I was 
lefs furprifed at the exact refemblance of 
feveral of their inftruments of hufbandry 
to our’s. It is natural, that things of the 
firft neceflity fhould be handed down, un- 
changed, frum generation to generation, 
when once the moft advantageous form 
has been found: out. But it does net 
feem equally natural, that their chirur- 
gical inftruments fhould’ be fo very fimi- 
lar to our’s ;, for though the art of fur- 
gery can never be out of fafhion, yet the 
mode of its practice varies every day, 
Notwithftanding this, the ancient cathe- 
ter, trochar, {peculum, probes, and feam, 
-preferved at Portici, hardly differ in any 
re{pect from thofe employed at prefent 
by the members of the healing art. I¢ 
is much to be regretted, that the dark 
ages have not been equally faithful in 
all the arts of which 
the ancients were in pofiefhon. The 
numerous indications in Greek and Ro- 
man writers, of their having a method 
of giving to bronze the temper of iteel, 
are juftiked by feyeral facriticial knives 
of the former metal, that fil exit in 
the Mufeum; and from fome confidet- 
able mafles of beautiful .blue.and vellow 
glafs, which are faid to be as hard.as the 
