IO TRAVELS IN UPPER 



communicates the dryness of his subject to his 

 manner of treating it. 



A strikingexample, among thousands that might 

 be produced, of this predilection, against which 

 a man cannot be too much on his guard, is to 

 be found in the travels of Frederic Hasselquitz. 

 This pupil of Linnaeus, a most zealous inquirer, 

 but exclusively attached to the study of natural 

 history, being at Grand Cairo, wished to visit the 

 pyramids of Memphis ; but being arrived at the 

 foot of those monuments, equally renowned for 

 iheir enormous size and their antiquity, he soon 

 withdrew his attention from them, and fixed it en- 

 tirely on the formica-hones which swarm in the 

 sands of that district. Insects engrossed all his 

 powers of thought, and one of the most astonishing 

 works of all antiquity excited no emotion in his 

 breast. " The pyramids," says he, " magnificent 

 " as they are, make a slighter impression on the 

 " mind of a connoisseur in natural history than 

 " the industry of those puny animals *." 



The generality of mankind will not give into 

 the opinion of the Swedish naturalist, of whom, to 



* Travels in the Levant, by Fred. Hasselquitz, published 

 by Linnxns, and translated from the German at Paris, 1769, 

 part I. p. 107. 



say 



