248 OUT OF BOOHS. 



and the under-current of earnestness that runs through 

 the whole design. The ark is about half the size of a 

 Thames lighter, and, small as it is, the artist has par- 

 titioned it off with scrupulous fidelity into its various 

 compartments, and affixed to each division an explana- 

 tory label. There is an ' apotheca herboruinj 1 and an 

 4 apotheca specierum.' The clean animals are separated 

 by the whole length of the vessel from the unclean 

 beasts, and in the middle is the * habitas hominurifij 

 about as large as a Skye terrier's kennel. All Noah's 

 sons are dressed in the exceedingly abbreviated jerkin, 

 the tight hose, and the pointed shoes of the period. 

 One of them is chopping vigorously at a prostrate 

 beam, making the splinters fly bravely ; another is 

 apparently splitting the skull of one of his brothers ; 

 while a third is seated on a raft, dubbing down with 

 his adze the sides of the ark, which is at least a hundred 

 yards distant from him. I have always thought that 

 Hogarth must have seen this wood-cut before he drew 

 his well-known ' Perspective.' 



Then every place that is mentioned, whether it be 

 city, country, or continent, is illustrated by an engraving, 

 more remarkable for its ingenuity than its accuracy. 

 Why ' Provincia Britannia ' should be represented by 

 thirty or forty castellated towers, crushed together 

 within a circular wall, and let neatly into the sea, is a 

 mystery not easily to be penetrated. Supplying Nineveh 

 with a cathedral inside the walls, and a quintain out- 

 side them, is a venial error in chronology, as are the 



