Part 20 (1/2)
After inspecting the chamber just mentioned, they were taken to a place where they sahat had once been the pedestal of a statue
Here Michael Angelo showed theht conceal hinorant and superstitious populace ht believe to co showed the full depth of ancient ignorance and superstition; and over this Michael Angelo waxed quite eloquent, and proceeded to deliver hihly important character, which he uttered with that fluent volubility peculiar to the whole race of guides, ciceroni, and showmen, in all parts of the world
These ular routine, and the moment that he found himself here in this Tein to flow
The next place to which Michael Angelo intended to take them was the a
All this tier than any of the others, and far more profoundly moved He felt his soul stirred to its inh which he had been h there were revealed here to his eyes, in one glance, all that he had been laboriously acquiring from books by the study of years But this was better than books
These Roman houses, into which he could walk, were far better than any nuraved prints, however accurately done
These teion better far than volumes of description These streets, and shops, and public squares, and wall, and gates, and toht into the departed Roman civilization that was far fresher, and ained before It seemed to hiain and again, he thought He was unwilling to go on with the rest, but lingered longer than any over each spot, and was always the last to quit any place which they visited
They stopped on their way at the Tragic and Coth reached the Aest in the city, and is better preserved than any
It is built of large blocks of a dark volcanic stone, and constructed in that massive style which the Romans lived, and of which they have left the best exae aht still serve for one of those displays for which it was built Tier after tier those seats arise, which once had accos On these, it is said, the Pompeians were seated when that awful volcanic storm burst forth by which the city was rained Down from these seats they fled in wildest disorder, all panic-stricken, rushi+ng down the steps, and crowding through the doorways, tra one another under foot, in that athered darker and darker, and the showers of ashes fell, and the suffocating sulphuric vapors arose, and as of the sky flashed forth, illuloo with the subterranean rus of the earthquake the thunder of the upper air
From this cause the Amphitheatre may be considered the central spot of interest in Poathers around this place, and to him who sits upon those seats there is a more vivid realization of that awful scene than can be obtained anywhere else
On reaching the Amphitheatre they seated themselves on the stone steps, about half way up the circle of seats, and each one gave way to the feelings that filled him They had walked now for hours, and all of therateful Here they sat and rested
CHAPTER XIX
_Lofty classical enthusias on the Part of Frank--David, red hot with the Flow of the Past, is suddenly confronted with the Present--The Present dashes Cold Water upon his glowing Enthusiasm--The Gates--Minor, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus--The Culprits_
As they thus rested on the seats of the Amphitheatre, the classical enthusiasue, and his enthusiastic feelings burst forth without restraint, in a long and somewhat incoherent rhapsody about the fell of Pompeii Full before them, as they sat, rose Vesuvius; and they saw that which helped them to reproduce the past more vividly, for even now the dense, dark cloud of the volcano was gathering, and the thick s forth from the crater Far into the heavens the s in a dark pillar till they reached the upper strata of the atmosphere, where they unfolded themselves, and spread out afar--to the east, and the west, and the north, and the south Some such appearance as this the loomily before the Pompeians on that day of days Some such scene as this may have appeared, only deepened into terrors a thousand fold athered here on these seats for the last time
Such were the ideas of David Clark; and these ideas he poured forth in a long rhapsody, full of wild enthusiased, and he was compelled to stop for want of breath
”O, that's all very fine,” said Frank, suddenly, as David stopped, and breaking the silence which had followed his eloquent outburst,--”that's all very fine, of course You have a habit, David,into raptures over old bones and old stones, but after all, I'd just like to ask you one question”
”What's that?” asked David, a little sharply
”Why, this Has this place, after all, come up to your idea?” And Frank looked at him with very anxious eyes
”This place?” said David ”What, Pompeii? Come up to my idea? Why, of course it has What makes you ask such a question as that? I never spent such a day in all my life”
”Well, for my part,” said Frank, in a very candid tone, ”I'll be honest I confess I' this, Frank shook his head defiantly, and looked at all the other boys, with the air of one as ready and willing to maintain his position
”Disappointed!” exclaimed David, in an indescribable tone, in which reproach, astonishether
”Yes,” said Frank, firmly, ”disappointed--utterly, completely, and tee-totally I'll tell you what my idea was My idea was, that the streets would be streets, in the first place Well, they're not _streets_ at all They'remore than _foot-paths_ Secondly, my idea was, that the houses would be _houses_ Well, they're not They're old ruins; heaps of dust and bricks--”
”Nonsense!” interrupted David, in indignant tones ”How could the houses be standing after being buried for so ht of ashes, and stones, and earth, lay upon their roofs Houses! Why, did you expect to find couches to lie on? or chairs--”
”Well,” said Frank, ”my quarrel with Pompeii doesn't end here