I know that some young ladies fancy that it is degrading thus to work in the kitchen. Alas, what miserable delusion! Degrading to do that which contributes to the comfort of home, that which makes a family happy, that which enables a wife to discharge her duties well and wisely! Oh, do not let any of my readers indulge such folly! It is never degrading to do our duty--but it is degrading to despise it. Even if a person is so rich as to render labor unnecessary, yet it is impossible to enjoy even riches without some toil, some industry; and when my young friends grow up, if I should live so long, I hope to see those who are girls now, industrious, skilful housewives then. If they can reign well over the little kingdom of the kitchen, I am sure they will preside successfully over the parlor. One thing should be remembered--and it is this: _home is seldom happy where housewife duties are neglected_; _home is seldom miserable where they are wisely discharged_! The Voyages, Travels, and Experiences of Thomas Trotter. CHAPTER XIX. _Visit to Herculaneum.--Singular position of that city.--Account of the manuscripts discovered there.--Visit to Pompeii, and description of the curiosities of that place._ No traveller can visit this region without being attracted to those remarkable places, Herculaneum and Pompeii, two Roman cities, which, as every reader of history well knows, were overwhelmed by an eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79, and, after lying buried, totally forgotten, for seventeen hundred years, were accidentally discovered about a century ago, by digging a well. I first visited Herculaneum, which is nearest to Naples. This city lies seventy or eighty feet under ground, and the towns of Portici and Resina are built over it. I went down a dark passage with steps, like the descent into some enormous dungeon, till I reached an open space resembling a cavern, very wide and lofty, but as dark and dismal a spot as one would desire to visit. On examining the side of this great chamber by the light of torches, we could discover the stone walls and other masonry of the structure, all showing it to be an ancient theatre. In this place were originally found three fine marble statues, which are now to be seen in the museum at Naples. Round about the building are various dark passages and galleries dug through the hard earth; but the whole city of Herculaneum lies at such a depth below the surface, that very little of it besides the theatre has been explored, on account of the labor and expense attending the operation. The city was overwhelmed first by a shower of ashes, and then by a torrent of hot water. The ashes and water have hardened into a compact mass, which, after a consolidation of seventeen hundred years, is found very difficult to dig through.