Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/456

430 zeolites as I had seen in Gioeni's possession. It was true we might reduce the scale of the affair, and decline the attendance of the wife; but the warning of the Englishman prevailed over every other consideration. We gave up all thoughts of zeolites, and prided ourselves not a little on this act of self-denial.

Our clerical companion has not failed us to-day. He conducted us to some remains of ancient architecture; in examining which, however, the visitor needs to bring with him no ordinary talent of restoration. We saw the remains of the great cisterns of a naumachy, and other similar ruins, which, however, have been filled up and depressed through the many successive destructions of the city by lava, earthquakes, and wars. It is only those who are most accurately acquainted with the architecture of the ancients that can now derive either pleasure or instruction from seeing them.

The kind abbé engaged to make our excuses for not waiting again on the prince, and we parted with lively expressions of mutual gratitude and good will.

God be thanked that all that we have here seen this day has been already amply described, but still more, that Kniep has resolved to spend the whole of tomorrow in the open air, taking sketches. When you have ascended to the top of the wall of rocks which rise precipitously at no great distance from the sea, you find two peaks, connected by a semicircle. Whatever shape this may have had originally from Nature has been helped by the hand of man, which has formed out of it an amphitheatre for spectators. Walls and other