THE MERMAID. 4- 



the increase of knowledge ; and that the mermaid of fact 

 will have become as much a creature of the past as the 

 mermaid of fiction. With regard to the latter — the Siren of 

 the poets, — the water-maiden of the pearly comb, the cn.-stal 

 mirror, and the sea-green tresses, — there are few persons I 

 suppose, at the present day who would not be content to 

 be classed with Banks, the fine old naturalist and formerly 

 ship-mate of Captain Cook. Sir Humphry- Da\y in his 

 Sahnonia relates an anecdote of a baronet, a profound 

 believer in these fish-tailed ladies, who on hearing some one 

 praise verj- highly Sir Joseph Banks, said that " Sir Joseph 

 was an excellent man, but he had his prejudices — he did 

 not believe in the mermaid/' I confess to having a similar 

 •' prejudice ; '' and am willing to adopt the further remark 

 of Sir Humphry Da\y : — " I am too much of the school of 

 Izaac Walton to talk of impossibility-. It doubtless might 

 please God to make a mermaid, but I don't believe God 

 ever did make one.'' 



