The remains of the Romans are in better keeping. The Piscina Mirabile is a stupendous work, and almost perfect; and it puts all modern reservoirs to shame. It is under ground, vast and contains arches and piers fit for the foundations of a palace. My respect for the Roman marine has never been very profound; but, if it be true that this place was intended to water their fleet, I know no modern nation that, under similar circumstances would be likely to effect the same object on a scale so magnificent and noble. The supposed prisons of the Hundred Chambers have the same character of vastness and durability. But every thing Roman appears to be of this nature, and, in studying the remains, one is constantly provoked to make comparisons to the prejudice of us moderns. Were Naples to be deserted to-morrow, and this entire region depopulated, it is my opinion that they who visited the country a thousand years hence, would still find remains of the Romans, where every trace of the Neapolitans had disappeared. As for ourselves, the case is still worse. A period as short as that during which the country has been occupied, would probably obliterate every mark of our possession. We have a few forts, and a sea wall or two, that might resist the wear of a few centuries; but New York would not leave a trace, beyond imperishable fragments of stone, in two hundred years. Something may be ascribed to climate, certainly; but more is owing to the grand and just ideas of these ancients, who built for posterity as well as for themselves. After looking at ruins, if works almost as perfect as they were the day they were completed can be so termed, we embarked, and made sail for the point of Pausilippo, with a light but fair wind. The little island of Nisida, which once had its villas too, is now the Lazaretto, and was filled with travellers in quarantine. The breeze served to carry us half across the bay, and it then deserted us. Our galley put out its oars, and we swept in towards the cliffs, on as lovely an evening as ever fell on this _pezzo di cielo_. Just as the day closed, the black mass of Capri became shut in by the headlands of Massa, and we approached the rocky shore of Sorrento beneath the light of a placid moon. Before nine, we were all safely housed in the _Casa detta del Tasso_. LETTER XVI. Capri.--Dread of Earthquakes.--Cruise to Pompeii.--The Sarno.--Approaching Squall.--Sorrentine Boatmen.--Siroccos.--Public Works.--Camaldoli Convents.--Islands of the Syrens.--A Sabbath Walk.--Monasteries on Hills.--Creature-Comforts.