TRAVELERS OF THE 14TH AND 15TH CENVURIES. 79 



describe every thing. In the midst of the obscurity in which 

 the East and the interior of Asia were shrouded, distance 

 seemed only to magnify the grand proportions of individual 

 ibrms. This unity of composition is almost wholly wanting 

 in most of our recent voyages, especially where their object is 

 the acquirement of scientific knowledge. The narrative in 

 the latter case is secondary to observations, and is almost 

 wholly lost sight of. It is only the relation of toilsome and 

 frequently uninstructive mountain ascents, and, above all, of 

 bold maritime expeditions, of actual voyages of discovery in 

 unexplored regions, or of a sojourn in the dreadful waste of the 

 icy polar zone, that can afford any dramatic interest, or admit 

 of any great degree of individuality of delineation ; for here 

 the desolation of the scene, and the helplessness and isolation 

 of the seamen, individualize the picture and excite the imag- 

 ination so much the more powerfully. 



If, from what has already been said, it be undeniably true 

 that in modern books of travel the action is thrown in the 

 back-ground, being in most cases only a means of linking to- 

 gether successive observations of nature and of manners, yet 

 this partial disadvantage is fully compensated for by the in- 

 creased value of the facts observed, the greater expansion of 

 natural views, and the laudable endeavor to employ the pecul- 

 iar characteristics of different languages in rendering natural 

 descriptions clear and distinct. We are indebted to modern 

 cultivation for a constantly-advancing enlargement of our field 

 of view, an increasing accumulation of ideas and feelings, and 

 the 'powerful influence of their mutual reaction. Without 

 leaving the land of our birth, we not only learn to know how 

 the earth's surface is fashioned in the remotest zones, and by 

 what animal arid vegetable forms it is occupied, but we may 

 even hope to have delineations presented to us which shall 

 vividly reflect, in some degree at least, the impressions con- 

 veyed by the aspect of external nature to the inhabitants of 

 those distant regions. To satisfy this demand, to comply with 

 a requirement that may be termed a species of intellectual 

 enjoyment wholly unknown to antiquity, is an object for which 

 modern times are striving, and it is an object which will be 

 crowned with success, since it is the common work of all civ- 

 ilized nations, and because the greater perfection of the means 

 of communication by sea and la^i renders the whole earth 

 more accessible, and facilitates the comparison of the most 

 widely-separated parts. 



T have here attempted to indicate the direction in which 



