Ancient History

A railroad runs from Naples to Pompeii. Are you alone? The trip occupies one hour, and you have just time enough to read what follows, pausing once in a while to glance at Vesuvius and the sea; the clear, bright waters hemmed in by the gentle curve of the promontories; a bluish coast that approaches and becomes green; a green coast that withdraws into the distance and becomes blue; Castellamare looming up, and Naples receding. All these lines and colors existed too at the time when Pompeii was destroyed: the island of Prochyta, the cities of Baiæ, of Bauli, of Neapolis, and of Surrentum bore the names that they retain.

The Great Flood holds mankind's awe at the sheer devastation that a flood could bring on civilization. Here's yet another version found in libraries, once buried, now recovered.

Seldom published fragments of scriptures of differing religions and teachings of philosophers.

Research of the Aztec civilization that didn't make it into a published book.

Was the entire story of Jesus nothing more than that

The great flood has been recorded by ancient civilizations throughout the world. The Bible itself records a revered version of the flood. This Sumerian/Babylonian story predates the authorship of the Biblical story.

WHILE preparing an account of MOUNT ETNA for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, I was surprised to find that there exists no single work in the English language devoted to the history of the most famous volcano in the world. I was consequently induced to considerably enlarge the Encyclopædia article, and the following pages are the result. The facts recorded have been collected from various sources-German, French, Italian, and English, and from my own observations made during the summer of 1877.