VOL. 4.] Extracts from an Arctic Navigator's Journal. 291 Their The stitutes, that the whole pleasure and there is one particular which manifests business of the assembly consisted in some discretion and decorum. striving how to increase and endure the most beautiful females always sit withintolerable heat. It is true there were in a door guarded by a tough thick web, several erections of green sod, and I which, when taken out, resembles a could not avoid admiring with what leathern purse. And they have also a ingenuity these colonists have taught door with hinges like the valves of an certain black foxes, and an equal num- oyster or muscle, which opens and shuts ber of elegantly shaped creatures called if the metal which touches it is magnetamicas, or fair marmosetts as we name ic. I request you to communicate this them in Asia, to throw pieces of spotted fact to the members of our college, and shells at each other for the amusement urge them to consider its resemblance of the spectators. And dances very to what we know of the great South much resembling our European waltzes American spider, so celebrated for the and quadrilles were performed by the strength of its nets. Their marriages black beavers and young moose-deer, are whimsically metaphorical. whose slow gait and fantastical bounds bride stands on a pyramid of snow, and were often pleasantly contrasted; and the bridegroom on one of smoking well exemplified the thought of that ashes. If the melting of the snow wise ambassador, who asked, when he quenches the heat, or if the embers saw our dances, if we had no servants cease to burn before the snow dissolves, or tame animals to perform such labours the omen is considered unprosperous. But the most remarkable par- But if they decrease in the same proticular, and the most strikingly similar portion, it is an augury of happiness;* to English society, was, that all the and as both parties are dumb, I suprational animals being dumb, the above- pose there are no provisions for alimony mentioned foxes and marmosetts were or separate maintenance. Courtships instructed to make an agreeable and for the same reason are managed with constant murmur, which marvellously becoming brevity, and not much deresembled the indistinct congregation ception; but I specially admired the of sounds heard at a metropolitan fête. allotment of time for weeping at a funeI must not omit to add, that this mur- ral. It lasts precisely as long as the mur or buz was most marked when mourner can count a hundred pieces of two or three birds placed there on pur- copper coin into his purse. pose began to sing or scream. They seemed to be birds of the gull species. for us. Being dumb, you will easily suppose no lawyers are requisite; but the proBut another circumstance claimed pe- fession flourishes notwithstanding this culiar notice from us, as philosophers obstacle. If any person considers himno less intent on moral than physical self robbed or aggrieved, he applies to discoveries. This colony of Neonou- one or two persons called the civilians sites has schools for the instruction of of this colony; and as eloquence is unfemales, but you will start to hear that known here, a blind fox is brought into young children are employed to give their court of justice, and that advocate lessons to the old. In this remote re- is deemed most skilful who can make gion, probably because the aged are him drink through the longest straw. supposed to lose their faculties in these Another and apter way of deciding a stupifying and incessant frosts, the suit is this. The judge drops two oysyoung employ themselves in tutoring ters on the head of the plaintiff and deand disciplining their parents. Those fendant, and he whose head is hard unhappy creatures who have offspring enough to crack the shell, is pronounc labour unremittingly in sawing fir and ed victorious. But if the case is not destriving to rear fruits or harvests, while cided in twelve months, the parties' attheir children spend fifteen or sixteen tornies are publicly whipped--a practice years in learning how to slide down a hill of ice with feathers on their heads and empty shells in their hands. This seems a relic of a Jewish tradition, that a wife's proper Hebrew names signifies water, and her Yet husband's fire. 292 Extracts from an Arctie Navigator's Journal [VOL. 4 which might be useful in Europe. The cies, to nurse and rear their children same chastisement is inflicted on phy- during the first six or seven years; an sicians when their patients die. One of office which they are apt to execute the rarest and most pleasant peculiari- with all the capricious eruelty of their ties among these people is, that they nature; but the parents have an idea never absolutely die. The funeral cere- that as human creatures are sure to demonies are performed during a man's serve chastisement in some part of their last illness, that he may enjoy the pomp lives, it is wisest and most safe to give of these honours; but he is not inter- them an ample sufficiency at first. Notred, and his physicians, when the breath withstanding the ungracious habits and of life has forsaken him, perform certain unkindness of their nurses, these chiloperations similar to our galvanic bat- dren acquire all their subtle instincts, tery, and excite the muscular system so and especially a remarkable fondness for powerfully, that though the intellectual dress; as one of the whims of this colspirit is gone, he is fully capable of the ony is to equip its domestic animals in employments most usual here. I do the utmost finery; and we were highly not find that they take this trouble with amused when we were waited upon at their wives when defunct; but as the dinner by a white bear in a coat and petrifying power of this keen air acts hat which we had given his master; speedily on the lifeless frame, their de- and saw the pelican-cook strutting in a ceased beauties are soon converted into bonnet of the French shape, which constatues, which are splendidly attired in cealed its long beak and large pouch feathers and cockle-shells, and being admirably. duly painted, fill their former places in Their meals are regularly taken about public assemblies with great effect, and the same time as in England, and are can hardly be distinguished from the certainly more suitable to a climate living. where there is very little night, than to Their household arrangements de- ours, in which the fashionable season serve attention and imitation even in has hardly any day. There is, as I Europe. Knowing the fatigue of reg- have told you, no conversation at their ulating human domestics by precept or parties; but a number of bats are emexample, they have availed themselves ployed, who fly from house to house of that surprising instinct which may with the news of the day written on be called reason without will in animals. their broad leather wings, which answer Therefore they employ the large shag- the purpose of our morning and evening gy dog peculiar to northern lands as papers perfectly well. I took some their porter and errand-carrier; and his pains to discover whether they have fidelity far surpasses any biped's em- any poets or novellists, but could only ployed in that capacity. The beaver, find one fragment or sketch of a roso skilled in heaping up or carrying tim- mance, which is preserved with extraber, is their ordinary household drudge; ordinary care, as a relic left by the first and as fish is the principal article of founders of this colony. I judge from their diet, a number of tame pelicans its style, language, and other circumact as clerks of the kitchen. It is real- stances, that it cannot be of great antily admirable to observe with what quity; and when you have read my quietness and expedition these purvey- extract, which I annex as well as I ors perform their duty, and sometimes could decypher and comprehend such rob each other's pouches with an alacri- a perplexed MS. you will certainly ty altogether human. As the custom I concur in my opinion, that this colony am going to mention is not much unlike must have been transplanted from Eu one which now prevails in civilized na- rope much more recently than the Nortions, you will not refuse to believe that wegians in 1406, or the great Briorn mothers in this colony abandon their who emigrated before (as Swedish hisoffspring in their infancy and childhood. torians say) the three stars shone in the They employ a set of sleek handsome, West. animals, of the tiger-cat or hyæna spe VOL. 4.] Extracts from an Arctic Navigator's Journal. 293 PLAN OF THE ROMANCE, OR HISTORICAL of certain vapours, and nitrous particles. NOVEL. When this period arrives, the colony Chapter 1. The Battle of Shrewsbury. having no means of changing their Lord Craggycliff commands King abode on land, amuse themselves with Henry's hussars, and is slain by a short voyage or change of scene on the wind of a bullet. the back of a kraken which visits this Chapter 2. King Henry IV. dines with coast; and are much gratified by their Lady C. in Grosvenor-square, on abode on it, though the floating island his return from Shropshire. Ward which its back affords is covered only But this and Frescati arrange the supper with sand and sea-weeds. and orange-trees. Lady C. dis- monstrous fish is not without its due misses the heroine, Starchissa, her portion of sagacious instinct; and by orphan protegée, because she asked means of his large suckers, draws in so Lord John of Lancaster for an great a quantity of the supplies they ice-cream. bring with them, that the poor travellers Chapter 3. The heroine writes a sonnet are compelled to return home half famto a tea-kettle in the ruins of ished. In addition to this wandering Twenty-ghosts' Abbey, and sees propensity, I trace some traits of Enga Knight with fair hair and large lish character in their disproportioned eyes carrying mouse-traps. They number of lawyers and physicians. fall in love of course. They have also a common class of Chapter 4. Owen Glendower, the cele- thieves who resemble ours, because they brated magician assures Starchissa are openly educated for that avocation, that the mouse-trap knight is Hot- and pursue it without disguise. spur's son and heir in disguise. their prison-regulations are new, and Chapter 5. Sir Eglamour de Mouse- deserve your notice as a civilian. Intraps informs his beloved, that stead of imprisoning rogues, they only Lord Craggycliff's last codicil pro- shut up honest men, that (as they provides an annuity for his wife's fess) they inay know where to find protegée,and advises her to claim it. them, and prevent them from becoming Chapter 6. Starchissa, in her way to thieves. This wonderfully lessens the Doctors' Commons, sees Prince John of Lancaster driving the Mail-Coach, and to conceal herself takes a place inside. Chapter 7. Lord C.'s ghost appears in the shape of a Proctor, and announces that the annuity is left to Lady Craggycliff's orphan lapdog of the same name. Chapter 8. Sir Eglamour de Mousetraps declares himself married to the Queen of Noland; and Starchissa, having written an ode with a gold pencil, in a damp grotto, expires. But number of prisoners, and the trouble of the police, since prevention, saith our law, is easier than cure. All these indications of sagacity and discretion induced Professor Cacanous, my literary companion, to consider from what imperfect conformation of organs these people's want of speech could proceed. And as both science and humanity impelled him to ascertain and remedy it if possible, he procured the aid of our surgeon's mate; and having enticed one of the natives into a secure part of the long avenue which leads to their tenements, he began to examine his pericranium according to the rules I think you will consider me justi- of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim. From the fied in supposing these fair-haired in outline of the os frontis, he concluded habitants of an ice-valley, ab origine the organ of communication was not English especially as they have not sufficiently developed; and being a yet lost their fondness for emigrating. practical proficient in the science, he At a certain period of the year, this sin- seized the poor native, and prepared to gular atmosphere gives every object a make an incision into his skull, intendblue tint; an operation which our nat- ing to rectify and enlarge the cell of the ural philosophers have explained very brain. He was on the point of the satisfactorily as a necessary consequence experiment, when his patient made a : 294 Nuge Literarie-Mysteries of Udolpho. ['VOL. 4 violent effort to escape, and begged for captain of our ship notified that our mercy in very articulate English. Our leave of absence was expired, and insurprise was great, but pleasant; and terrupted this newly-opened intercourse he assured us, that according to their by demanding our immediate return on national institutes, they were only dumb board. Still as our passage through at home. He offered to teach us their Baffin's Bay is very doubtful, we shall peculiar idiom; confessing, however, probably sail back by the same course, that they studied all languages more and renew our acquaintance with this than their own. We should have em- hospitable colony, whose origin and trabraced his kindness eagerly; but the ditions may afford us some amusement. V. From the New Monthly Magazine, November 1818. THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO. THERE No. III. ful ideas of" death and judgment.” HERE are, doubtless, few readers On the continent there existed, before of this enchanting romance who the French Revolution, some remarkahave forgotten the appalling veiled pic- ble instances of the strictness or superture, which occasioned so much alarm stition of the devotees; for many of the to the susceptible Emily, whilst explor- convents, particularly those on the southing the uninhabited chambers of the ern frontiers, possessed images, similar castle of Udolpho. Mrs. Radcliffe re- to that described by Mrs. Radcliffe ; serves its explanation for her last vol- before which, the transgressing memume, where in common with other bers of their communities, were obliged, mysteries," it is duly elucidated; by prayers and penance, to expiate the and turns out to be the representation, crimes of which they had been found in wax, of a human form, nearly de- culpable. 66 voured by worms; before which, a pre- In the chapel, belonging to the Privious Occupant of the castle had been ory of the Celestine Monks, at Heverle, doomed to do daily penance, in order near the town of Louvain, in Brabant, to expiate some deadly crime. It ap- is still exhibited a figure, executed in pears highly improbable, that the im- the most masterly manner, of the finest agination of the ingenious authoress white marble, representing a human of these volumes of wonders, unbound- body in the last stage of putrefaction; ed as it was, should have furnished her with myriads of worms apparently in with an incident so singular and unac- the act of devouring it. As such an countable, had not her mind received object, in a situation so public, could some assisting suggestion, either in the be by no means pleasing to general becourse of her very various reading, or holders, it is surrounded by a green curextensive travels. I am inclined to think, tain or veil, which is only removed that in the earlier part of the last centu- when the image is applied to the purry, the revolting custom of exhibiting poses above alluded to. Now, as our even publicly, the most disgusting em- admirable novelist is known to have blems of our mortality, was by no means travelled through this neighbourhood, it uncommon. Indeed, the emaciated may readily be supposed, that, to a figures, still observable in many of the mind so romantic as hers, such a strange cathedrals and ancient edifices of this relic could not have been passed unnoticcountry, bear abundant testimony of ed; but must, on the contrary, have had the likelihood of the conjecture. The strong claims upon her attention; nor mode of ornamenting grave stones from is it at all detracting from her exquisite time immemorial, with the skeleton head talents to infer that it gave rise to the and cross bones, is, I conceive, merely veiled picture, which forms so striking a modification of the custom, and in- a feature in her " Mysteries of Udoltended to convey to the mind the same pho." VOL. 4.] Epithets-Madrigal by Lodge, On the Epithets ROSY, and ROSY-FINGERED. It is observed by Pope, in his preface to the Iliad, that " as a metaphor is a short simile, so an epithet is a short description," and it is somewhat singular that with so great a relish for them in his original, he should almost invariably have neglected to transfuse into his own compositions those emphatic expressions which Aristotle has so aptly denominated living words, PodocanTunes rosy-fingered, is a compound epithet frequently used by Homer; and fancifully adopted by many of our English poets. Spenser, who, in his imagery, rivals every other writer, has the following beautiful description of morning, in which it is introduced : Now when the rosy-Angered morning fair, The morn begun from Ida to display 295 The purple morning left her crimson bed, Milton, after having depicted "morn with rosy hand," elsewhere has an allusion to her rosy steps:- Now morn her rosy steps in th' eastern clime We will finish with one more quotation from Spenser, who frequently uses this epithet. Wake now, my love, awake, for it is time, Lodge. There is a tract of great rarity in the British Museum, from which Shakspeare is stated to have borrowed the Dryden has also applied it to the plot of " As you like it," entitled "Eu same purpose :— The rosy-fingered morn appears, And from her mantle shakes the tears. phue's Golden Legacy," by Thomas Lodge, a poet of the Elizabethan age, who was also the author of a great And Milton, though somewhat dif- variety of valuable publications, in ferent : -The morn Waked by the eireling hours, with rosy hand The simple epithet rosy, has been still more frequently applied to the morn; and although to multiply examples from the ancients would be endless, a few adductions may not be unamusing from the moderns. In Dryden's translation of Virgil it very often occurs, for instance And now the rosy morn began to rise, And waved her saffron streamer through the skies. In a previous quotation Dryden has given Aurora rosy-fingers, but in that, which immediately follows, she is described by the same poet as having rosy-cheeks: prose as well as verse. Ellis, in his 66 Specimens of the Early English Poets," has given three of his poems from the "Pleasant Historie of Glaucus and Scilla," but has omitted to men tion the following madrigal; the most beautiful, perhaps of all his composi tions. The edition from which it is transcribed is believed to be unique. Love in my bosom like a bee Doth suck his sweete; Within mine eyes he makes his nest, ne Strike I my lute-he tunes the string, With many a rod, |