Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/262

244 of all kinds, religion, and the arts, are not one jot different from what they would be in caves and forests. What strikes the stranger most, and what to-day is making the whole city talk, but only talk, is the common occurrence of assassination. To-day the victim has been an excellent artist—Schwendemann, a Swiss, a medallionist. The particulars of his death greatly resemble those of Windischmann's. The assassin with whom he was struggling gave him twenty stabs; and, as the watch came up, the villain stabbed himself. This is not generally the fashion here: the murderer usually makes for the nearest church; and once there, he is quite safe.

And now, in order to shade my picture a little, I might bring into it crimes and disorders, earthquakes and inundations of all kinds, but for an eruption of Vesuvius which has just broken out, and has set almost all the visitors here in motion; and one must, indeed, possess a rare amount of self-control, not to be carried away by the crowd. Really this phenomenon of nature has in it something of a resemblance to the rattlesnake, for its attraction is irresistible. At this moment it almost seems as if all the treasures of art in Rome were annihilated: every stranger, without exception, has broken off the current of his contemplations, and is hurrying to Naples. I, however, shall stay, in the hope that the mountain will have a little eruption expressly for my amusement.

, Dec. 1, 1786.

Moritz is here, who has made himself famous by his "Anthony, the Traveller " (Anton Reiser), and his "Wanderings in England" (Wanderungen nach England). He is a right-down excellent man, and we have been greatly pleased with him.