1829.] Novels by the Author of Headlong Hail. 385 
and lively incidents, some of which are of a highly intellectual character. 
The details, in particular, of the interview between Mr. Forester, Mr. 
Fax, (a Malthusian philosopher, if we remember rightly,) and Mr. 
Moley Mystic, of Cimmerian Lodge, are imbued with a strong Rabelaisian 
spirit: the allegory is admirably preserved throughout. We subjoin this 
able chapter. 
*‘ CIMMERIAN LODGE. 
“ After a walk of some miles from the town of Gullgudgeon, where no 
information was to be obtained of Anthelia, their path wound along the shores 
of a lonely lake, embosomed in dark pine-groves and precipitous rocks. As 
they passed near a small creek, they observed a gentleman just stepping into 
a boat, who paused and looked up at the sound of their approximation ; and 
Mr. Fax immediately recognized the poeticopolitical, rhapsodicoprosaical, 
deisidemoniacoparadoxographical, pseudolatreiological, transcendental meteo- 
rosophist, Moley Mystic, Esquire, of Cimmerian Lodge. This gentleman’s 
Christian name, according to his own account, was improperly spelt with an e, 
and was in truth nothing more nor less than 
¢ That Moly, 
’ Which Hermes erst to wise Ulysses gave ;’ 
and which was, in the mind of Homer, a pure anticipated cognition of the sys- 
tem of Kantian metaphysics, or grand transcendental science of the duminous 
obscure ; for it had a dark root, which was mystery ; and a white flower, which 
was abstract truth: it was called Moly by the gods, who then kept it to them- 
selves ; and was difficult to be dug up by mortal men, having, in fact, lain perdu 
in subterranean darkness till the immortal Kant dug for it under the stone of 
doubt, and produced it to the astonished world as the root of human science. 
Other persons, however, derived his first name differently ; and maintained 
that the e in it shewed it very clearly to be a corruption of Mole-eye, it being 
the opinion of some naturalists that the mole has eyes, which it can withdraw 
or project at pleasure, implying a faculty of wilful blindness, most happily cha- 
racteristic of a transcendental metaphysician ; since, according to the old 
speaverb, None are so blind as those who won't see. But, be that as it may, Moley 
ystic was his name, and Cimmerian Lodge was his dwelling. 
“ Mr. Mystic invited Mr. Fax and his friends to step with him into the boat, 
and cross over his lake, which he called the Ocean of Deceitful Form, to the 
Island of Pure Intelligence, on which Cimmerian Lodge was situated: pro- 
mising to give them a great treat in looking over his grounds, which he had 
laid out according to the topography of the human mind ; and to enlighten them, 
through the medium of ‘ darkness visible,’ with an opticothaumaturgical 
process of transcendentalising a cylindrical mirror, which should teach them 
the difference between objective and subjective reality. Mr. Forester was 
unwilling to remit his search, even for a few hours: but Mr. Fax observing 
that great part of the day was gone, and that Cimmerian Lodge was very 
remote from the human world ; so that if they did not avail themselves of 
Mr. Mystic’s hospitality, they should probably be reduced to the necessity of 
passing the night among the rocks, sub Jove frigido, which he did not think 
very inviting, Mr. Forester complied, and, with Mr. Fax and Sir Oran Haut- 
ton, stepped into the boat. 
“ They had scarcely left the shore when they were involved in a fog of un- 
prcneied density, so that they couldnot see one another ; but they heard the 
ash of Mr. Mystic’s oars, and were consoled by his assurances that he could 
not miss his way in a state of the atmosphere so very consentaneous to his 
peculiar mode of vision ; for that, though in navigating his little skiff on the 
Ocean of Deceitful Form, he had very often wandered wide and far from the 
Island of Pure Intelligence, yet this had always happened when he went with 
his eyes open, in broad daylight ;, but that he had soon found the means of 
M.M. New Scrics—Vou. VII. No. 40. 3 D 
