gress from day to day; men were at work, as we passed along, and an entire building, with its marble impluvium, its well-chiselled statues, its fountains, and its columns, had just been cleared away, for the instruction of the Russian princes! Who can tell with what design, and for whose instruction, this overwhelmed city has been preserved and concealed for nearly two thousand years from the eye of man, and with what lessons of wisdom its discovery is intended to be fraught!

The discovery of the three buried cities, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Statira, has furnished Naples with the most glorious museum of antiquities in the world. The excavations of these mines of antiquarian wealth and ancient relics have done more to furnish us with correct information as to the habits, manners, and internal life of the ancient Romans, than all the classical writers that are left to us, and all their commentators. One single household utensil, one single instrument of agriculture, placed in the museum, has more effectually enlightened us, than a page of description or a whole book of the Georgics! What information may not be obtained by visiting the room of bronzes. The Dancing Faun, the Venus, the Players at the Discus, and the Infant Hercules, found in different parts of Pompeii, show a state of art in sculpture and casting, that we have not yet attained. The rooms of terra cotta and of glass, filled with every variety of pottery, of figured glasses, and household utensils, conclusively de

monstrate that in Pompeii nothing was wanting that could contribute to the enjoyment of the luxuries of life. Many of the vases, presenting white figures wrought upon colored glass, and admirable transparent vessels ornamented with gilding for table use, cannot be equalled by the finest Sevres of the present day. In walking through the museum of Portici, the thought suggested by Chateaubriand often occurred to us. How much better it would have been to have left everything where and as it was found, to have restored the roofs, ceilings, floors, and windows, in order to have prevented further injury to the paintings and the walls, to have built up the old enclosure of the city, to have shut the gates, and to have established there a guard of soldiers and a body of servants. Would it not have been the most marvellous museum in the world? A Roman city as completely preserved as if its inhabitants had left it but a quarter of an hour before!

One of the greatest celebrities of Naples or of Europe is the Theatre of San Carlos. Theatres have been called the temples of the Italians. San Carlos is probably the largest and most magnificent of those temples. Fortunately for us, we happened to be at Naples on the night of the anniversary of the King's baptism, and the play-bills informed us that “il teatro sarà illuminato à giorno,”the theatre would be made as bright as day by

illumination. Indeed, all Naples was illuminated! Toledo Street was brilliant with lanterns and torches and fantastic lights; the beautiful church of San Francisco di Paolo-Saint Peter in littlewas one blaze of light from dome to base; the palace was illuminated in every window, and rockets and fireworks were sending forth their bright long tracks of light, red and blue and green, in every direction. Colors and streamers were flying from all the vessels in port, cannons were booming, the thoroughfares were crowded, and bands of music were playing in every street. Joy reigned in Naples, and everybody seemed delighted to think that another year had been spared to as stupid a looking and as thoughtless an acting king as we had ever beheld! We entered San Carlos by the great stairway, and after a good many formalities were ushered to our seats! San Carlos was as bright as day! Its seven rows of boxes were all dazzling with light. It was crowded from pit to gallery. The royal box, that occupied the middle of the first and second tiers, was richly ornamented, and crowned with the Sicilian arms, and the whole house was gorgeous with beauty and glittering with diamonds. Despite, however, the attractions of the royal box, and the hundreds of the distinguished and the noble of the kingdom that crowded the theatre, the eyes of the spectators seemed riveted on a box not far from the stage, remarkable neither for the beauty of its occupants nor the richness of their ornaments. A

short, stout, gray-haired man, with a singularly formed head, and wearing large round spectacles, who sat on the second bench, with his chin resting on his cane, and who appeared to be thinking of other things than the play, was the "observed of all observers." He conversed from time to time with those around him, seemed wholly unconscious of the attention he was attracting, and then relapsed into his thoughtful mood. Our interest was excited, and we inquired of our nearest neighbor the name and rank of the great unknown. "It is the celebrated M. Thiers," said our informant; and we joined the crowd in looking at one of the greatest statesmen and writers of the nineteenth century.

CHAPTER XIII.

American Reunion on board an Italian Steamer-The Tuscans-Pisa -Its Campanile-Duomo-Campo Santo-Florence-The Cathedral-The Pitti Palace-The Jackass-The Venus de' MediciThe Church of Santa Croce-Donatello and Brunelleschi-I. H. S. -The Farmacia-Hiram Powers-Departure from Florence.

WE joined the steamer Ercolano, rather earlier than the hour fixed for leaving the port, that we might once more enjoy the view of the celebrated Bay of Naples. As the hour for starting arrived, we found ourselves surrounded by Americans and English. The latest period when it is considered either safe or pleasant to remain in this warm region had drawn near, and the various parties we had met, from time to time, on our route, were making their way northward and homeward. This steamer was a place of general reunion, and from the number on board it might readily have been supposed that Italy was, in great part, supported by the revenue filched in various ways from English-speaking travellers, and the moneys begged, under various pretexts, from the same objects of universal depredation. Civita Vecchia added greatly to the number of our countrymen on board, and we formed quite an American