Winder see the Forum, at the highest
place of the city. It is entered by two
triumphal arches. It is bounded on
three sides by Doric columns. Yonder,
in the suburbs of the city, is the home
of Arrius Diomed. the mayor of the
suburbs, terraced residence of billion
airedom. gardens, fountained, stained,
collonnaded, the cellar of that villa
filled with bottles of rarest wine, a
few drops of which were found eight
een hundred years afterward. Along
the streets of the city are men of might
and women of beauty formed into
bronze that many centuries had no
power to V*edim. Hattie scenes on
walls of color which all time can not
efface. 11 rent city of Pompeii! So
Seneca and Tacitus and Cicero pro
nounced it.
Stand with me on its walls this even
ing of August -’S. A. D. 79. See the
throngs passing up and down in Tyrian
purple and girdles arabesque aud necks
enchained with precious stones, proud
official in imposing toga meeting the
slaves carrying trays a-clink with gob
lets and a-smoking with delicacies
from paddock and sea.and moralist mus
ing over the degradation of the times
passes the profligate doing his best to
make them worse. Hark to the clatter
and rataplan of the hoofs on the streets
paved with blocks of basalt. See the
verdured and flowered grounds sloping
into the most beautiful bay of all
the earth —the bay cf Naples.
Listen to the rumbling chari
ots, carrying convivial occupants
to halls of mirth and masquerade
and carousal. Hear the loud dash of
fountains amid the sculptured water
nymphs. Notice the weird, solemn,
far-reaching hum and din and roar of
a city at the close of a summer day.
