2012-08-20
(no subject)
Pompeii: a microcosm
Pompeii was the miniature of the civilization of that age. Within the narrow compass of its walls was contained, as it were, a specimen of every gift which luxury offered to power. In its minute but glittering shops, its tiny palaces, its baths, its forum, its theatre, its circus--in the energy yet corruption, in the refinement yet the vice, of its people, you beheld a model of the whole empire. It was a toy, a plaything, a showbox, in which the gods seemed pleased to keep the representation of the great monarchy of earth, and which they afterwards hid from time, to give to the wonder of posterity--the moral of the
maxim, that under the sun there is nothing new.
permalink: http://blog.jimmorgan.us/?p=5546
#books #pompeii #quotes
Pompeii was the miniature of the civilization of that age. Within the narrow compass of its walls was contained, as it were, a specimen of every gift which luxury offered to power. In its minute but glittering shops, its tiny palaces, its baths, its forum, its theatre, its circus--in the energy yet corruption, in the refinement yet the vice, of its people, you beheld a model of the whole empire. It was a toy, a plaything, a showbox, in which the gods seemed pleased to keep the representation of the great monarchy of earth, and which they afterwards hid from time, to give to the wonder of posterity--the moral of the
maxim, that under the sun there is nothing new.
permalink: http://blog.jimmorgan.us/?p=5546
#books #pompeii #quotes
(no subject)
Pompeii: Hast thou ever been in love?
'Tell me, Clodius,' said the Greek at last, 'hast thou ever been in
love?'
'Yes, very often.'
'He who has loved often,' answered Glaucus, 'has loved never. There is
but one Eros, though there are many counterfeits of him.'
'The counterfeits are not bad little gods, upon the whole,' answered
Clodius.
~from The Last Days of Pompeii
permalink: http://blog.jimmorgan.us/?p=5550
#books #pompeii
'Tell me, Clodius,' said the Greek at last, 'hast thou ever been in
love?'
'Yes, very often.'
'He who has loved often,' answered Glaucus, 'has loved never. There is
but one Eros, though there are many counterfeits of him.'
'The counterfeits are not bad little gods, upon the whole,' answered
Clodius.
~from The Last Days of Pompeii
permalink: http://blog.jimmorgan.us/?p=5550
#books #pompeii