22 MOXSIGNOR DE GODEAU. [169O. 



Wings brown or russet, their Neck sometimes short, some- 

 times long, according as they please, either to stretch it out 

 or shrink it up. 'Tis a melancholy Bird that passes whole 

 days on the brink of a Rock, hanging its Head over into the 

 Sea, like a Fisherman with a Line to catch little Fish. 

 Though the figure of this Creature was not at first sight very 

 pleasing to us, they were however very welcome, because we 

 were weary of seeing nothing but Water, and the least new 

 Objects diverted us. Like their Highnesses in those little 

 out-of-the-way Courts where no Company comes' to interrupt 

 their Solitude ; or like the Nuns who are so greedy of Society 

 in their Solitary Convents. 



The 17th we heard the Seamen cry a Whale,i another 

 Marine Pleasure ; every Body rose immediately to pay our 

 Compliment to the Eminency of a great black-Back, which 

 swam up and down slowly about our ship. 



A Moment after we saw fifteen or twenty more, which put 

 me in mind of what Mr. de Godeaic^ says elegantly in his 

 Poems : — 



1 There are two distinct families of Cetaceans. The first, Odonto- 

 ceti, or toothed whales, include the spouting whales, which subsist on 

 fish and sepias, representing the carnivorous class, exemplified by the 

 sperm-whales, porpoises, and dolphins. The second (iivision comprises 

 the whalebone whales, as the rorquals and mysticctes, the true or right 

 whales, provided with filaments of whalebone. 



The whales seen by Leguat were probably the sperm-whales, the 

 largest and most valuable of the southern whales. These are gregarious, 

 and are found in parties, termed by whalers "schools" or "pods", 

 according to the size of the association. 



- '•'■ Monsignor Godeau, a witty prelate, and an habitue of the Hotel de 

 Rambouillet, who was one of the first members of the French Academy. 

 It is related that he owed the bishopric of Grasse to the irresistible 

 habit of punning possessed by Richelieu. Godeau having written a 

 paraphrase of the canticle, Benedicite omnia opera, presented it to the 

 Cardinal, who was so pleased with it, that, after having read it over 

 again ia the presence of the author, he said to him : ' You offer me the 

 Benediction, I offer you in return {graces, thanks) Grasse.' '' {Eugene 

 Muller.) 



