SCENERY ROUND NAPLES. 201 NAPLES. Naples is to the Eternal City, what the sprightly Greeks were to the solemn Romans. The three views, from the Bay, from Vesuvius, and from the Castle of St. Elmo, are, I think, the most splendid on the surface of this globe, as respects natural scenery-and are hardly inferior to any, in point of materials for classical recollection, or poetic imagery. The situation of Naples is not more singular than the character of her inhabitants. Perched on the abrupt declivity of a craggy and precipitous eminence that overhangs the ocean-alternately rocked by the earthquake and scorched by the volcano-in daily risk of being hurled into the sea, or crashed beneath gigantic rocks-this magnificent city sits smiling at the convulsions of Nature-the head-quarters of noisy mirth and motley masquerade—where, in fact,— All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players! The Neapolitans are the only true philosophers. DIOGENES Considered himself peculiarly independent, because he could coil himself up in a tub, like a dog, and snarl at passengers. The LAZARONI are far more independent as well as far more happy than the Grecian cynic, because the earth is to them a comfortable sofa-the sky a magnificent canopy-and a "few fingerings of Macaroni" are ample provision for the day !* * A spirited female writer (Lady Morgan) looks upon the Neapolitans as “ fine materials for an able legislature to work out a noble national character;" sagaciously observing that-" an ardent temperament is the soil of great virtue, as of great talent-for strong feelings and kindling fancies are not the stuff of which mediocrity of any kind is created." Her Ladyship then lauds the spirit, the patriotism, the learning, and other estimable virtues of their ancestors, from the time they assisted in driving out Hannibal, down to their resistance of the pope and the inquisition. The amiable writer's sex prevented her from seeing certain proofs of the virtues of the ancient inhabitants of this land of genius, as carefully concealed on the walls of the houses in Pompeii-and preserved in a certain wing of the MUSEO BORBONICO, wisely locked against female curiosity. Had her Ladyship studied these relics, she would have found that the ancients were still less decent and virtuous than the modern Neapolitans. "The day-light (says her Ladyship) is not shunned by the lower Neapolitans, under any pretence. In the full glare of its lustre, in the full observance of the public eye, ALL THE DUTIES AND ALL THE OFFICES OF LIFE, are frankly and undisguisedly performed." A precious scene this for the eyes of delicate English females! Lady Morgan has gone as far in graphic description as she could, with decency—and farther than I shall venture to go on this occasion. D d The transition from Rome to Naples-from the Boeotian and pestiferous atmosphere of the Campagna to the clear blue ether of BAIE, is like that experienced by the long-confined slave, on emerging from the dark Peruvian mine, to gaze in freedom on the glorious vault of Heaven. The operation of physical agencies alone, in such scenes as these, is of no mean potency; but when moral influences are superadded, the effects are very striking. Example is peculiarly contagious, and human magnetism is not entirely visionary. There are few possessing any share of sensibility, who can saunter along the TOLEDO, or thread the mazes of the thousand wyndes and crevasses that descend from this magnificent street to the Mole, or delve through the steep acclivities of the rocks, without catching a portion of that exuberant animal spirit which flashes from soul to soul, like the electric corruscations that play from cloud to cloud, along a tropical horizon on an autumnal evening. It will be well too, if we do not catch, by frequent contact, something more than a portion of the vivacity of this lively people, "whose character is as volcanic as their soil"-in whose veins the fires of Vesuvius are said to burn-perhaps not always with the most hallowed flame! Situated on the verge of Elysium-on the confines of earth and ocean, enjoying all the advantages of land and water-this terrestrial paradise affords too much physical stimulation to the senses, and too much moral excitement to the intellect of casual visitors, not to induce that satiety which sooner or later supervenes on vivid impressions and voluptuous sensations. Hence it is a general remark among strangers, that, although Naples is most charming, as a temporary sojourn, Rome is more desirable as a protracted residence. This illustrates a position which I ventured to advance on a former occasion, when speaking of Gibbon, Rousseau, and the lake of Geneva. Brilliant skies and beautiful landscapes cannot secure constant pleasure. On the contrary, the very excitement which they produce, inevitably exhausts the power of enjoyment, and ends in ENNUI. I speak of a moral and intellectual people, and not of those mere animals whose "over-abundant vitality, uncalled on by their torpid institutes, bursts forth as it can, and wastes itself in shrill sounds, rapid movements, and vivacious gestures." The agencies in question lead to two important results-a deficiency of moral sentiment, and a decrement of human life. Where climate supplies constant stimulation for the senses, passion will predominate over reason; and where the passions are indulged, the range of existence will be curtailed. Hence we see around us, in this fairy land, a people "who seek sensations in proportion as they are denied ideas-and who, consigned unmolested to the influence of their vehement passions, are as destitute of moral principles as they are removed from the causes out of which moral principles arise-PROPERTY and EDUCATION." Lady Morgan attributes all these effects to mal-government-and nothing to SCENERY ROUND NAPLES. 203 climate-but how will her Ladyship account for the next part of the position -the decreased length of life? In Naples, supposed to be the finest climate in Italy, or in the world, a 28th part of the population is annually swept away, —while only a fortieth part pays the debt of Nature in London! This prodigious difference cannot be placed entirely to the account of moral or political causes. In all warm climates, an approximation to the same results takes place, whatever be the form or the merits of government. Life is shortened-moral sentiment depressed! But however we may moralize on the influence of a climate which, there is too much reason to believe, is unfavourable to valour in one sex and virtue in the other; it is impossible to view the topography of Naples, without exquisite delight. From Misenum on one side, to Surrentum on the other, the bold and waving line of coast, with islands of classic fame, forming the guard or break-water of a spacious semicircular bay, presents the most magnificent and romantic scenery over which the eye of man ever ranged, in a mixture of astonishment and pleasure. It is a scene of loveliness, sublimity, and serenity, springing out of the agonies, the distortions, and the convulsions of Nature! Every inch of coast from Procida to Capri-nay, from the rocks of Anxur to the vortex of Charybdis, including the Tufa Mountain, on whose rugged brow and jutting crags Naples itself reposes, has been torn from the bowels of the earth, and vomited forth, in torrents of boiling mud or molten lava, to crystallize in air or rush into the affrighted ocean. In Rome, we tread on the ruins of sad reality. Here, we wander over the land of fiction and of song. The poet's eye, "in a fine phrenzy rolling," has peopled every foot of this fairy ground, with gods celestial and gods infernal—with heroes and demigods-with syrens and sybils-with the shades of the JUST, enjoying their Elysium-with the souls of the WICKED expiating their crimes ! It would be delightful, if we could disburthen our memory of the facts of history, and only retain the illusions of poetry, while eyeing the shores of Baiæ. But alas, we cannot forget, though we need not dwell on the subject, that this enchanted and still enchanting coast has been more debased, in a moral point of view, by the crimes and depravities of MAN, than physically disfigured by the conflicts of elemental war! If Homer and Virgil, Horace and Lucullus, Maecenas and Cicero, Varro and Hortensius have been thereso also have been Marius, Tiberius, Nero, Caligula, and too many others of the same stamp! They breathed on these shores, and their pestilent breath remains, to sicken and consume the unwary sojourner-a breath more depopulating than the UPAS TREE of Java or the SIMOOм of the desert! But to return to modern PARTHENOPE. The first few days' sojourn in this intoxicating spot-this land of Circe and the Syrens-would induce even a veteran traveller to think that he had, at last, found the haven of happiness, the PORTUS SALUTIS, the RE-UNION and concentration of all the objects that can delight the senses, exercise the intellect, inspire the fancy, renew the health, and prolong existence. Whether we pace the terraced roof of the beautiful VITTORIA-saunter through the statued and scented groves of the Chiaja-wind round the romantic promontory of Posilipo-sigh over Virgil's tomb-ascend the steeps of St. Elmo, Camaldoli, or Misenum, there to gaze on the sublimest scenes of varied beauty, fertility, and grandeur, that ever burst on the human eye; or shudder at the desolating ravages of active or exhausted volcanos, Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled, The fragments of an earlier world; Whether we endeavour to recall the glowing descriptions of poets, or labour to imprint on the mind or the memory some faint images of the gorgeous scenes that surround us, we are overwhelmed, distracted by the tumultuous tide of impressions, half of which we can neither receive, dispose of, nor retain ! "And thus an airy point he won, Where, gleaming with the setting sun, One burnished sheet of living gold, In all its length far winding lay, And mountains that, like giant's stand, To centinel enchanted land." Of the inhabitants of Naples, it would ill become a momentary sojourner, even to sketch the lineaments. The features of Nature, and the feats of art are open to all-and "he who runs may read." But a knowledge of character requires intimacy of acquaintance; and intimacy of acquaintance can only be formed during a protracted residence. That the monarchy of this fair region is despotic, and the government corrupt, will hardly be disputed. That, in such a country, there should be one law for the rich, and another for the poor, need not be wondered at, when we reflect on the current of justice under tribunals less arbitrary. It is more than suspected that the Neapolitan government fosters ignorance and idleness in its NOBILITY-trusting to these qualities for all others that may be subservient to its policy! As to the middle and more enlightened ranks—the clergy, the bar, the faculty` of physic, and the literary of all kinds, they must be pretty much the same as their brethren in other countries. Profession and avocation produce nearly the same effects as military discipline. They drill men into a surprising uniformity of mind and manners-they go far to annihilate idiosyncrasy—to render identity not personal but generic ! STREETS AND INHABITANTS. 205 Of the people-and especially of that anomaly in civilization, the people's people, or LAZARONI-much has been said that will soon be forgotten. So great a change has taken place in the fortunes of the LAZARONI, within a few years, that Forsyth and Lady Morgan would hardly believe their own eyes-or their own handwriting, were they to revisit this splendid city. The government having comfortably, or at least securely lodged most of those in the work-house, who could not shew proof of having a lodging elsewhere, an entire revolution has been worked in the aspect of affairs, and half the drollery of Naples has been transformed into the drudgery of industry. The peripatetic poet, wit, and commentator on Tasso, has lost half his audience, on the Mole-the preaching friar is in a still worse predicament-and even PUNCHINELLO has experienced a sad defalcation in his revenue! The heat of the climate, however, and the custom of the country still render the streets of Naples the theatre of all kinds of arts, manufactures, and traffic, as well as of idleness and amusement. Hence the graphic sketches of Forsyth and others, on this point, are likely to continue faithful representations for centuries to come. "The crowd of London is uniform and intelligible: it is a double line in quick motion; it is the crowd of business. The crowd of Naples consists in a general tide rolling up and down, and in the middle of this tide a hundred eddies of men. Here you are swept on by the current, there you are wheeled round by the vortex. A diversity of trades dispute with you in the streets. You are stopped by a carpenter's bench, you are lost among shoe-makers' tools, you dash among the pots of a maccaroni-stall, and you escape behind a lazarone's night-basket. In this region of caricature every bargain sounds like a battle: the popular exhibitions are full of the grotesque; some of their church-processions would frighten a war-horse." The other part of the picture, as drawn by Forsyth, is now greatly curtailed of its fair proportions; but may still be recognized. "The Mole seems on holidays an epitome of the town, and exhibits most of its humours. Here stands a methodistical friar preaching to one row of lazaroni: there, Punch, the representative of the nation, holds forth to a crowd. Yonder, another orator recounts the miracles performed by a sacred wax-work on which he rubs his agnuses and sells them, thus impregnated with grace, for a grain a piece. Beyond him are quacks in hussar uniform, exalting their drugs and brandishing their sabres, as if not content with one mode of killing. The next professore is a dog of knowledge, great in his own little circle of admirers. Opposite to him stand two jocund old men, in the centres of an oval group, singing alternately to their crazy guitars. Further on is a motley audience seated on planks, and listening to a tragicomic filosofo, who reads, sings, and gesticulates old Gothic tales of Orlando and his Paladins." Such were thy charms-but half these charms are fled! |