The method of warming apartments by flues,
and ventilating them, as now practised, was known to the inhabitants of
Pompeii. Of this town, amongst public buildings, the Forum, the Theatre,
and the Temple of Isis, have been discovered; and the latter has revealed,
in a curious manner, the iniquitous jugglery of the heathen priests. The
statue of Isis, was, it seems, oracular, and stood on a very high pedestal,
or kind of altar in the temple of the goddess. Within this pedestal a
flight of steps has been discovered, ascending to a metal tube or pipe;
which, fixed in the hollow body of the statue, and attached to its lips,
the priest of Isis was enabled by speaking through this tube, to make the
poor deluded multitude believe that their idol gave articulate answers to
their anxious queries! We have heard of similar delusions being practised
by _Christian_ priests, in days comparatively modern! But, only let us
conceive, the shame and dismay which would _now_ suffuse the countenance of
one of these worshippers of Pompeian Isis, could he but behold the
deception which had been practised upon him unsuspectedly! I have said,
that but few skeletons have been found in Pompeii; all that have been met
with are covered with ornaments, and appear as in the act of escaping from
their hapless town, with what they could carry off of their most valuable
possessions; from which death would not relinquish his hold.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25