MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 153 



business by disclosing to him at the outset all the failures, impositions, 

 frauds, and misfortunes, to which he should be subjected in the course of it- 

 Applying the fabulous names of the ancients to the real productions of Na- 

 ture is but one form of this mode of iriaking knowledge the destroyer of hap- 

 piness, but it is one which brings no good to compensate the evil. It de- 

 stroys the marvel ot the hoy, but enough of that marvel remains to turn into 

 ridicule and contempt the knowledge of the man. The withering power 

 which the eyes of the fabled Basilisk were endowed with gives point to 

 some of the choicest passages in poetry ; and to persons of fine feelings 

 these passages give more abundant and exquisite pleasure than they 

 could purchase in '' the market," even if they had the wealth of the 

 Indies to lay out in the purchase of it. Now if, along with these pas- 

 sages, there comes always the conviction that the said Basilisk is equally 

 frail and harmless as a Butterfly' among the flowers, there remains no more 

 pleasure — derision, contempt, is the natural feeling. It is of no use to plead 

 that it is a different Basilisk altogether, for there is identity in the name; 

 and if the fabled name has been bestowed upon a reality which has not the 

 attributes of the fable, then the bestower of that name has been guilty of a 

 falsehood. Any one who wishes to judge how much of poetic enjoyment 

 may and must be destroyed b}' this misappropriation of names that had their 

 meaning before, may turn to the second scene of Richard the Third, and 

 read on to this Une, spoken by Lady Anne : — 



" Would they were Basilisks, to strike thee dead '." 



Substitute the word " Butterflies" for " Basilisks ;" read the line thus : — 



" Would they were Butterflies, to strike thee dead !" 



and feel the power of the scene if you can. Yet the Butterfly of Natural 

 History is quite as likely to strike one dead as the Natural History Basi- 

 lisk ; and thus, while the application of the fabled name destroys the force of 

 the fable, the memory of the fable turns the real animal into ridicule. The 

 application of sounding names where there is no analogy to warrant their 

 use, has done much mischief in all the departments of Natural History, and 

 also in all the other subjects from which these names are taken. 



The Basilisk of antiquity (and it was gravely described by Pliny and Galen 

 among the ancients, and has been so by Lobo, Prosper Alpini, and Aldro- 

 vandi, among the modems) was a terrible creature. Among the pools and 

 lakes of that land of marvels which gave source to the mighty flood of the 

 Nile, it reigned in terrible majesty ; but it reigned in desolation. Its name 

 was derived from the Greek word /Sair/Xi^a^a;, " to reign." It had eight feet, 

 two large scales for wings, was of a golden j'ellow, and its head 



" The likeness of a kingly crown had on." 



The taint which it communicated to the air was more deadly than that fabled 

 of the Upas-tree, and believed by naturalists; lor no animal could breathe 

 the same air and live, and its glance was instant death, even to the Lion 

 himself. Nature could not, of course, form such a creature in the ordinary 



VOL. VII., NO. XXI. U 



