EVENINGS FROM HOME.
Mr. Barlow, with Masters Sandford and Merton, at the Queen's Theatre, to see "The Last Days of Pompeii."
Tommy. Pray, Sir, what and where was Pompeii?
Mr. Barlow. It was, my dear Tommy, a Roman municipality, full of eligible villas, pleasantly situated in the immediate neighbourhood of Mount Vesuvius, and within easy reach of the sea. It was "a place to spend a happy day," and "there and back" from Naples formed one of the chief excursions, at a very moderate rate, for the middle classes of Neapolis.
They had just commenced this instructive and entertaining conversation, when the curtain rising discovered to their eager eyes as artistic and effective a scene (with the exception of stationary painted groups, whose fixed attitude strangely contrasted with the movement of the actors in front of them) as it had hitherto been their lot to behold.
As the play went on, Harry requested permission of Mr. Barlow to ask a question.
Harry. Did you not tell us, Sir, that the "e" in Pompeii was long?
Mr. Barlow. Indeed, Harry, I did.
Harry. And did you not also tell us that one of the purposes of a theatrical exhibition, such as this is, is the advancement of education among all sorts and conditions of people?
Mr. Barlow. You are again correct, and truly I begin to perceive the drift of your remark. Therefore let me tell you that had any Eton boy said Pompĕii, instead of Pompēii, he would speedily have been taught the force of an argumentum addressed, as was one of Horace's Odes, ad puerum.