Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-07-15
MODERN vOYAGEs-LT. HABERsHAM.


of travel. Who will not heartily sympathize
with "Old Maga" in his impatience with the
drsary calculations about the dip of the nee
die, magnetic poles, barOmetrical pressures, :"
etcl
We know not how it is, but few modern books
OF voyages appear to US to possess that richness,
raciness and variety which were so characteris-
tic in the narratives Of the early navieators.
We cannot admit that this decay of interest is
mainly to be attributed to the increase of our
years, which are many, or to q yitiated taste
endangered by long indulgence in spiced lite
rary ylands. We do not, of course, mean to as
sert that We can now devour a book with the
terrible avidity of a youngster, dream of it all
night, and awake on the morrow with undimin-
ished appetite for the banquet. That stage has
long gone by. and we are glad of it for, as our
ldlosy nerasy lnclines US to the reperusal of es-
pecial fayOrites, we could not by this time have
got beyond " Jack the Giant-killer,' :" Sanford
and Merton" the Fool of Quality the
Arabian Nights and the Pilgrims Pro-
gress s-bOOks VIII ch for long period were our
prime and almost exclusive favorites But even
now such works as the 90 Voyages of Cook" or
the "HistOry Of the Buccaneers" !" have to us nm
inexpressible charm We never weary of the
description of the Eden isle of Otaheitc with its
bread-fruit and its palms-of New Holland
with its fauna, first disclosed to the European
eye-Or of the wild adventures of the reckless
bsnd who plundered the Spanish galleons and
oyerawed the garrisOns of Panama. But when
we turn to modern books of voyage, we find
them for the most part dull, frisid, and over
loaded with circumstantial detail They want
picturesqueness, they want poetry, and thew are
lntolerably scientific. In them we are constant
ly aggravated by dreary calculations about the
dlp OF the needle, magnetic poles barometrical
pressure, and other topics of the sort which
possibly might interest a small minority of the
members of Royal Society but which, on men
N hay oIxytb tba 80
jaws to expand for the utterance of protrac ted
yawn. ~
Lot the very grandest volcano in the world
be belching forth its antartic fires at an un-
known elevation, the accomplished navigator
does not try to give n picture Of that sublime
spectacle by word-painting. but bestows all his
energy upon description of the strata and the
scOre, until the reader feels as if he had eaten
Tor dessert half-a-dozen pippins grown on the
shores Of the Dead Sea. Beasts birds fishes
molluscs, trees, shrubs, flowers, and lichens,
are not sketched as they appear to the outward
eye, but are catalOgued in prepOsterous Latin
which conveys as vivid an idea of their aspect,
as if the narrator had taken the pains to tran
scribe few pages of Ainsworth's Dictiona-
ry." In short the curse of the age-pedan-
try, and an afeetatiOn of superior knowledge
has lighted even on our navigatOrs, a class OF
men whom we might reasonably have expected
10 be free from such baneful influence
Yes-were it our last wOrd-we should pro-
test against the egregiOus foppery of science,
which tends so strongly towards symbolism. and
cold unidea'd nomenclature Botany and
chemistry, and geology, and mineralOgy, and
zoology, and technology, with twenty, fifty, nay
an hundred other olOgies at their back are rap
idly cOrrupting our language, barbarising US in
expression, and annihiiating descriptive power.
Those who in reality know nothing Of these
sciences, or, at best. only possess q smattering
Of them, think it their duty to accommodate
themselves 10 the prevalent jargOn; hence they
write like disSectOrs, and. instead of giving US
hooks OF vivid travel, put forth polyglot man
malls which can profit none. Even the more
sensible. who despisa the affectatiOn Of appear
ing more Versed in science than they actually
arc, feel a kind Of awe for the learned bodies
who infallibly will pronounce judgment Oh their
=, researches, ard refrain studiOusly from an ex-
preston OF feeling or enthusiasm. which they
rightly consider to be style extremely dis
tasteful to the OlOgists. So they confne them
= Selves TO the meteorological observations, jOt-
tings of soundings, memoranda of the quantity
dof coal consumed by their engines, ct ceteya
which results in their narratives possess in the
eyes Of the general public, little more interest
nthan would be felt in the recorded voyages of
the captain of n steamer, plying regularly
twice in the week between the ports of Rotter-
dam and London.
We do not expect and We do not wish. to re-
ceive from our explorers or navigatOrs fine
III.
We do not want them to mOralise, or wax maud
lin, or intersperse their narrative with pathetic
and phllanthrOplc reflections. We want them
to tell Us what they saw and what they heard
not with pre-Raphaelite minuteness, but even
IA these things are impressed ON their memo
ries-fOr the memory of man Is for all pur-
poses of reproduction, thousand times supe-
nor to note books and journals, which invaria-
bly, contain superhuities Of no actual interest,
and terribly wearisome when repeated. We
want them to write freshly, freely and fOrcibly,
conveying to Us readers, closely as may be-
the sensations they experienced; for which pur-
pose, and as guide, we earnestly recommend
all future explorers to study the works of the
late Thomas Cringle. An attentive perusal of
these Will at once reveal the enormous differ
ence between scientific symbolism and masterly
deiineation Of nature-between diagram and
iandscape-6etween the catalogue and the sub
jects Of exhibition.
Ii is absurd TO suppose that the charm of
novelty Il gone, because we are better aequaint-
ed. through books, than we were fifty years ago,
with the aspect of antipodean regions, and the
manners of their inhabitants. Nature never
pals. We, whose destiny il is to tarry at home
rather than wander over the face Of the habita-
bic globe, feel and acknowledge the truth of
that axiom. A visit however protracted, 10
the beautiful lakes of England, or to Scotland's
more romantic Highland scenery, so far from
satiating or fatiguing inspires US with long
ing 10 Ielurn- Gun lr our dreams we see the
placid sheet OF Wlndermere. or hear the cata-
racts calling TO one another as they thunder
down the gorges Cruaehan. And what lies ut
terly beyond our ken, belongs to the realm Of
fancy. The polar seas, with their awful ice-
bergs and foes, dimly deserted amidst the dark
ness, or lighted up by the shimmering of the
crimson aurOra-the dense American forest
closing Its eOllOsal growth over the ruins of an
ancient city, founded, it may be- and peOpled,
when Britain was thieket and a swamp-the
wide, open prairie, dotted over with countless
buffalo herds of the sun, more noble than those
which tempted the famished Ithacans to their
ruin-the Indian jungle wherein the tiger
prowls. and the serpent sleeps and swells-the
grand peaks Of the Himmalayas, which seem to
pierce the azure, highest pinnacles Of the vsi-
bic creation Of GOd-the isles of the Pacific
Oases Of the ocean desert. with their feathered
tufts Of palms, deep lagOons, and coral reefs,
where the pelicans have their home, all these