BAUBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 407 



quainting him with the news, and then sailed for Bergen. 

 They arrived at Laxavog before the festival of St Benedict. 

 On that day Prince Magnus rowed out to meet the corpse. 

 The ship was brought near to the king's palace, and the body 

 was carried up to a summer-house. Next morning the corpse 

 was removed to Christ's Church, and was attended by Prince 

 Magnus, the two queens, the courtiers, and the town's people. 

 The body was then interred in the choir of Christ's Church ; 

 and Prince Magnus addressed a long and gracious speech to 

 those who attended the funeral procession. All the multi- 

 tude present were much affected, and expressed great sorrow 

 of mind." 



So far the Icelandic chronicle. Each age has as certainly 

 its own mode of telling its stories as of adjusting its dress or 

 setting its cap ; and the mode of this northern historian is 

 somewhat prolix. I am not sure, however, whether I would 

 not prefer the simple minuteness with which he dwells on 

 every little circumstance, to that dissertative style of history 

 characteristic of a more reflective age, that for series of facts 

 substitutes bundles of theories. Cowper well describes the 

 historians of this latter school, and shows how, on selecting 

 some little-known personage of a remote time as their hero, 



" They disentangle from the puzzled skein 

 In which obscurity has wrapped them up, 

 The threads of politic and shrewd design 

 That ran through all his purposes, and charge 

 His mind with meanings that he never had, 

 Or, having, kept concealed." 



I have seen it elaborately argued by a writer of this class, 

 that those wasting incursions of the Northmen which must 

 have been such terrible plagues to the southern and western 

 countries of Europe, ceased in consequence of their conver- 

 sion to Christianity ; for that, under the humanizing influ- 

 ence of religion, they staid at home, and cultivated the arts 

 of peace. But the hypothesis is, I fear, not very tenable. 



